What Is Happening?
The QPX Express API will end on 10 April 2018. It has already closed for new registrations. Google Flights has two API products:
- QPX for enterprise;
- QPX Express.
The changes do not affect QPX for enterprise; they affect QPX Express, which is used by smaller partners. On 10 April 2018 the services will be shut down. Thus, existing partners should find an alternative before then. This step will provide an opportunity to continue working with airline tickets.
Alternatives
This situation can serve as a chance to get better technologies and services. The market offers several alternatives:
- Travelpayouts;
- Fareportal;
- Skypicker;
- And others.
Skyscanner is also an option, but after 31 January, partnerships will be available only through local intermediaries, such as CJ.com.
Travelpayouts
Travelpayouts is a travel affiliate program with its own API. Partners get access to flight data and have the possibility of earning from each selling. The flight search engine allows users to compare fares. The prices are sometimes lower than in Google Flights.
Partners get access to different APIs:
For the first two APIs, you must meet the requirements (more information here) and send a request to technical support. Flight and hotel search API allow partners to receive useful details about tickets and hotels by sending queries to Travelpayouts’ server. Partners can get information about:
- Airports and airlines;
- Hotels and available rooms;
- Prices for selected destinations;
- Most popular flight routes;
- Special offers;
- And more.
The airline ticket search API provides real-time results and allows for multi-city searching.
The Affiliate Stats and Flight Data Access API have no requirements and are available to everyone after they sign up. Data Access contains a cache of the query histories of all users for the last 48 hours. Affiliate Stats helps webmasters analyze internal statistics.
You will find detailed FAQ in the Help Center. Useful additions for working with the Travelpayouts API are available at this link.