Searching for Available Flights

Air Availability Search Screen

An Air Availability search returns scheduled flights between a given city pair on a specified date, and indicates whether seats are available on those flights

Note that the Air Availability Search returns availability, but not does not include any pricing information. To obtain pricing, a follow-up Air Pricing transaction must be made.

Tip! This topic describes searching for flight availability using the Air Availability Search screen. See Searching for Available Flights: Terminal Formats for equivalent Travelport+ (1G) and Apollo (1V) terminal formats.

Using the Air Availability Search Screen

Note: This example shows a Search screen in Flex Windows. Classic Windows has a different layout, but displays the same fields.

In Flex Windows, the Search screen is displayed as a side panel in the Travelport Smartpoint screen. You can choose to pin the side panel so that you can simultaneously view the PNR window.

By default the side panel is unpinned and collapses automatically if you click a location outside of the side panel. However, you can click the Pin icon to retain the side panel if you work in other locations in the Travelport Smartpoint screen.

You can also click the Collapse arrow at any time to close the pinned or unpinned side panel.

To search for air availability:
  1. Open the Air Availability Search screen.

There are several ways to access the Air Availability Search screen:

  • Flex Windows. Click the Search icon to select Air Availability Search.

    • Search from the Calendar.
    • Availability, to display the Air Availability Search screen.
    • Last Air to select a different date range for your most recently requested availability route. The requested route with new dates automatically displays in the Air Availability response screen.

    1. Click a departure date.
    2. For a round-trip itinerary, click a return date to select a range of dates in blue.
    3. Right-click the selected date or range of dates.
    4. Select Availability or Last Air.

    Note: For Last Air, if your last requested route was a one-way journey, the results display only the outbound availability. Return availability is displayed only if the last requested route was for a round-trip journey.

    1. Select the trip type: Round Trip for a round-trip itinerary or One Way for a one-way trip.
    1. In Origin, enter the airport code, airport name, city code, or city name for the departure location. See City/Airport Logic for a description of the response depending on whether you enter an airport code, city code, or combined airport and city code.

    As you enter the code or name, possible matches are displayed. In the following example, all locations associated with the city name Manchester are displayed. Note that rail and bus stations may also be displayed.

    You can either:

    • Use the arrow keys to select a location, then press ENTER.
    • Use the mouse to select a location, then click to confirm your selection.
    • Use the mouse or arrow keys to select a location, then press TAB to confirm the option and move the cursor to the next field.

    For the origin or destination, if the code is:

    • Both a city code and an airport code, but has a different metro code, Smartpoint searches by the airport code. For example: SNA, EWR, BUR.
    • A city/airport code and also metro code, Smartpoint searches by the city code. For example: LAX, HOU.
    • A city code, Smartpoint searches by the city code. For example: LON, NYC.

    For the origin or destination, if the code is:

    • Both a city code and an airport code, Smartpoint searches by the airport code. For example: LAX, EWR, HOU.
    • A city code, Smartpoint searches by the airport code. For example: LON, CHI, NYC.
    1. Optional. In Stopover, you can enter preferred stopover airports or cities. Click the Add icon to enter a maximum of three stopovers.
      Note: In the upcoming 10.1 release, this field name is changed to Connection. This change is shown in the image above.
    2. In Destination, enter the airport code, airport name, city code, or city name for the arrival location.
    3. In Departure date, enter the departure date or click the Calendar icon to select a date from the drop-down calendar. Smartpoint supports dates 364 days in advance of the current date. However, some carriers may support earlier date limits.

    The current date is highlighted in green.

    You can either:

    • Use the mouse to select a date that is highlighted in blue, then click to confirm your selection.
    • Use the arrow keys to select a date that is highlighted in gray, then press ENTER.
    • Use the arrow keys to select a date that is highlighted in gray, then press TAB to confirm your selection and move the cursor to the next field.
    Tip! In Smartpoint 9.1 and later, agents can search and book on the previous two days, if an earlier date is valid in the time zone of the itinerary city or location.

    As of Smartpoint 9.1, agents can use follow the sun functionality to create or change bookings that occur one or two days before the current date in their agency's time zone. These updates apply calendars and date fields in Search menus, Tools menus, Smartpanel, and Sell menus.

    For example:

    On November 20 at 05:00, an agent in Dubai (UTC+4) needs to rebook a flight from Honolulu (UTC-10) to Los Angeles. Because the flight pair occurs on the other side of the International Dateline, the time Honolulu is 15:00 on November 19. The agent in Dubai can successfully enter November 19 for a search or sell because November 19 is currently a valid date in Honolulu.

    Some location pairs in the Pacific have a two-day time difference. The biggest time difference between two places on Earth is 26 hours between:

    • The Howland Islands, which are the farthest west and use a time zone of -12 hours UTC.

    • The Line Islands in the Republic of Kiribati, which are the farthest east and use time zone of +14 hours UTC.

    1. In Departure time, enter the departure time or click the Calendar icon to select a time from the drop-down list. You can enter any time format accepted by Travelport+ (1G) or Apollo (1V), including formats such as 1A, 1P, 13, and 1300.

    You can either:

    • Use the mouse to select a date that is highlighted in blue, then click to confirm your selection.
    • Use the arrow keys to select a date that is highlighted in gray, then press ENTER.
    • Use the arrow keys to select a date that is highlighted in gray, then press TAB to confirm your selection and move the cursor to the next field.
    1. In Arrival date, enter the arrival date or click the Calendar icon to select a date from the drop-down calendar.
    2. In Arrival time, enter the departure time or click the Calendar icon to select a time from the drop-down list.
    3. Optional. In Airline, enter the two-character airline code, alliance code, or airline name.

    To add a maximum of five preferred airlines and to add alliances, click the Add icon.

    • Only one preferred alliance is permitted per request and can be combined with preferred airlines.
    • Some combinations of alliances and non-participant airlines may not be permitted in the same search and may return an error message: [AIRLINE CODE] IS A NON-PARTICIPANT-ENTRY IS INVALID. This message displays next to the first specified airline, regardless of whether that airline is the non-participant airline.

    As you enter the two-character airline code or the airline name, possible matches are displayed. In the following example, all airlines that contain South are displayed.

    You can either:

    • Use the arrow keys to select an airline, then press ENTER.
    • Use the mouse to select an airline, then click to confirm your selection.
    • Use the mouse or arrow keys to select an airline, then press TAB to confirm the option and move the cursor to the next field.
    1. Optional. For any airlines listed in Step 10, you can indicate the display preference. This selection applies to all listed airlines for all segments in the trip.

    • Include to return the listed airlines as preferred. Additional airlines may also be returned.

    • Exclude to remove airlines from the response.

    • Include Only to return only the listed airlines.

    1. In Passengers, select the number of passengers for this itinerary. Flight Shopping supports a maximum of nine passengers in a single PNR/Booking File.
    2. Optional. In Booking Code, select a cabin type (booking code), such as B or Y.
    1. Click SEARCH to display the Air Availability response. See Air Availability Results for detailed information about working with Air Availability responses.

    Tip! You can also click RESET at any time to remove your entries and redisplay the default search information.

    Example of a Completed Screen

    The following example shows:

    • A round-trip itinerary from Seattle (city/airport code) to Tokyo (city code).
    • A connection specified for Honolulu.
      Note: In the Smartpoint 10.0, this field is called Stopover.
    • From March 1 to March 16 with a specified departure time of 6:00 AM and a default return time of 12:00 AM.
    • Two included airlines: Delta (DL) and Japan Airlines (JL). DL and JL are preferred airlines, but additional airlines may be returned in the response.
    • A "Y" booking code (cabin type) specified, which is typically Economy class for most airlines.
    • For two passengers.

    See Air Availability Results for detailed information about working with Air Availability responses.