5 ms·

Why don't airlines provide a good free API for flights and reservations? I would think they would want developers to help make accessing their offerings and bu

Why don't airlines provide a good free API for flights and reservations? I would think they would want developers to help make accessing their offerings and buying them easier.

J5892 6y ago
Skiplagged.com (and the legal issues around it) is a good example of why they may not want that data easily accessible. But other than that, I assume there's a lot of money in partnerships with sites like Kayak and Priceline. But I'm not even sure which direction that money flows.
- ALittleLight 6y ago
  I also don't understand why they objected to skiplagged. If they make money on the flight if I'm in the seat, wouldn't they make slightly more (saving on fuel) if I'm not on it? Why would they care? Plus, the slightly less populated flight might be a bit more pleasant to the passengers sitting nearby where the missing person would've sat.
  - J5892 6y ago
    Because If you didn't use it you'd be paying more money for the flight you did take. Also they don't care about giving coach passengers a pleasant experience. They'd remove the seats altogether if they could.
notahacker 6y ago
APIs to airline reservation systems already exist, they're just supported by the likes of Amadeus that provide the relevant IT infrastructure to the airlines as well as distribution services for travel agents and OTAs to book [nearly] all the airlines Since finding and booking flights is actually trivially easy for the consumer already, it's actually in the interests of airlines (as well as the middlemen) to be cautious about who gets access to which API function, especially when it comes to actually selling tickets. At the extreme end of the scale, some low cost carriers can only be booked on their website, because they make more in upsell from the booking flow than they could make with extra bookings from other channels
usr1106 6y ago
Why would they? They prefer to keep their pricing structure secret and earn booking fees.
- ALittleLight 6y ago
  My intuition is that if you are selling something (like a flight) then you would want to make it as easy as possible for people to buy. Getting the data out as widely as possible would seem to help with that.
  - usr1106 6y ago
    They are selling cheaper and more expensive tickets. They have cheaper options for price-sensitive customers, but they don't want to make them easy to find for everybody. They have their own ticket shop online. So they prefer if people buy from there.

Why don't airlines provide a good free API for flights and reservations? I would think they would want developers to help make accessing their offerings and buying them easier.

J5892 6y ago

Skiplagged.com (and the legal issues around it) is a good example of why they may not want that data easily accessible. But other than that, I assume there's a lot of money in partnerships with sites like Kayak and Priceline. But I'm not even sure which direction that money flows.

ALittleLight 6y ago
I also don't understand why they objected to skiplagged. If they make money on the flight if I'm in the seat, wouldn't they make slightly more (saving on fuel) if I'm not on it? Why would they care? Plus, the slightly less populated flight might be a bit more pleasant to the passengers sitting nearby where the missing person would've sat.
- J5892 6y ago
  Because If you didn't use it you'd be paying more money for the flight you did take. Also they don't care about giving coach passengers a pleasant experience. They'd remove the seats altogether if they could.

notahacker 6y ago

APIs to airline reservation systems already exist, they're just supported by the likes of Amadeus that provide the relevant IT infrastructure to the airlines as well as distribution services for travel agents and OTAs to book [nearly] all the airlines Since finding and booking flights is actually trivially easy for the consumer already, it's actually in the interests of airlines (as well as the middlemen) to be cautious about who gets access to which API function, especially when it comes to actually selling tickets. At the extreme end of the scale, some low cost carriers can only be booked on their website, because they make more in upsell from the booking flow than they could make with extra bookings from other channels

usr1106 6y ago

Why would they? They prefer to keep their pricing structure secret and earn booking fees.

ALittleLight 6y ago
My intuition is that if you are selling something (like a flight) then you would want to make it as easy as possible for people to buy. Getting the data out as widely as possible would seem to help with that.
- usr1106 6y ago
  They are selling cheaper and more expensive tickets. They have cheaper options for price-sensitive customers, but they don't want to make them easy to find for everybody. They have their own ticket shop online. So they prefer if people buy from there.