About OAG’s Flight API
Official Aviation Guide, also known as OAG, is one of the industry leaders in aviation data. Established in 1929, the company has been connecting people, places, and experiences ever since with the aim of helping the air transport ecosystem grow through innovative technology. With thousands of airlines and airports serving billions of travelers, such a solution is essential to regulate the complexity of the niche and meet passenger demand.
A central product on oag.com is flights API, which allows webmasters to integrate flight data from OAG into their websites. API (Application Programming Interface) is, basically, a software code that allows two platforms to interact with one another without any assistance from the user. With Flight Info API, you can receive near-real-time access to the full range of schedules and status data from the world’s leading airlines and seamlessly integrate aviation data into your website.
Advantages of Using OAG’s Flight API
OAG’s flights API features quite extensive functionality. Here are some of the advantages that you may encounter by using the program:
- Get all flight data in one place. With OAG, you can access global airline schedules, flight statuses, and changes, etc. in a single API call.
- Avoid failed bookings. Unsuccessful reservations resulting from data errors cost time and money. However, you can avoid such issues and improve customer experience with accurate schedules from flights API.
- Scale your business. OAG’s flight API is powered by the most sophisticated format (RESTful JSON API), and can be scaled according to your business needs.
- Seamless integration. The developer portal provides you with access to numerous resources and product documentation for quick and easy integration with your platform.
- Gain authority in your niche. Get an expert view of the market with an industry-leading flight API from OAG to build trust with your audience and gain niche authority.
- Bring value to your customers. Get near-real-time information from airlines worldwide and quickly inform your customers about changes or delays to their flights. This will give your customers time to buy another ticket or arrive at the airport at the optimal moment.
- Increase conversions. With the most recent and accurate flight schedules from OAG’s flight API, you can earn more with your affiliate programs, while helping your audience organize their trips. For example, you can answer questions, such as whether the flight is departing on time or is delayed, which gate it will be leaving from, what is the estimated time of arrival, where to claim baggage, and more.
Flights API Data Sets
With OAG’s Flight API, you can integrate different data sets, including:
1. Global Airline Schedules
As there are more than 150,000 flight changes every day, it’s important to get the most up-to-date information about airline schedules. Data can be collected based on the airport, airline, or alliance for a particular region, market, or route. Thus, one can check on any route or flight of any airline or airport in the world for approximately 12 months ahead of time. The data is updated every 15 minutes. Using Global Airlines Schedules Data within flights API can help you increase conversions for flight affiliate programs by providing your audience with accurate flight schedules so they can book the perfect flight through your affiliate link.
2. Flight Seat Data
With OAG’s flight API and its machine-learning technology, you can check seat availability by flight and cabin level. In the end, you can help the user plan their trip better with OAG’s flight seat checker and even offer personalized services with the data on passenger profiles and flight seat configuration.
3. Flight Status Data
With flight status changing frequently, it’s important for travelers to always stay in the know. With OAG flight API and Flight Status Data, you’ll get near-real-time access to the flight status data from airlines worldwide, such as live flight data feeds, flight information displays, historical flight data, and more. You can inform your audience about flight delays and help them rebook their flights in case of a delay or cancellation.
How to Get Started with OAG’s Flight API
To get started, sign up on the developer portal in three easy steps:
- Click the “Sign Up” button on the homepage.
- Fill in your information and click the “Sign Up” button.
- Confirm your email address by clicking the link in the signup email.
Then, you can send a request for a free trial or full subscription. A free trial subscription lasts for 14 days and is limited to 100 hits, so it will end as soon as you reach one of those limits. Be sure to speak to an OAG specialist to validate your request. Otherwise, it might be rejected.
In the meantime, you can check the OAG Flight Status API integration guide.
How to Use OAG’s Flights API: Best Practices
To score a high payout with affiliate marketing using API, follow the subsequent best practices:
- While OAG’s flight API has a wide range of data sets for travel businesses, you might need to focus on the most relevant sets for your business. Be sure to analyze your audience and choose data sets that provide necessary data to help them plan the perfect trip and attract sales. You’ll be displaying only the most important flight information to avoid overwhelming or scaring away users.
- OAG is also available via Microsoft Azure, so you can use a trusted Azure cloud platform with streamlined deployment and management for comfortable and productive work with the OAG Flight API.
- Depending on the data sets that you choose, it might make sense to integrate historical flight data if you don’t use OAG’s Historical Flight Data API.
You can find more useful tips and inspiration in OAG case studies.
How to Earn on Flight Tickets with WayAway
OAG allows you to provide your audience with detailed flight information. Thus, users will be more eager to book flights and you can take advantage of that opportunity and monetize your content with affiliate marketing. One great program is WayAway.
About WayAway
WayAway is a flight ticket aggregator with an innovative search that compares airfares from all major US and global airlines. WayAway is the culmination of Travelpayouts’ ten years of expertise in the travel niche. The platform is made for travelers by travelers.
The key feature of WayAway is the WayAway Plus membership plan, which allows users to earn up to 10% cashback on travel bookings. This is actual cash (not points or miles) that is sent directly to users’ PayPal accounts. Should any matter arise, the support hotline is ready to answer any travel-related questions.
How Does the WayAway Affiliate Program Work?
You can join the WayAway affiliate program, place affiliate links and tools on your website, and receive commissions for each booking made through your link.
Here are some of the main benefits of the WayAway partner program:
- Earn up to 50% of the brand’s revenue and $10 for each sale of WayAway Plus.
- In contrast to API integration, no programming skills are required. Simply place affiliate links or other tools on your website and start driving traffic! If you need an API to allow users to search on your website, placing a flight search form can work just as effectively while requiring far less effort.
- The WayAway partner program is free to join and, unlike with other providers, webmasters can freely use its affiliate tools immediately. You can take advantage of WayAway’s beautiful and intuitive flights search form, calendar widget, schedule widget, and popular routes widget, as in the screen below. Should any questions arise, do not hesitate to contact the support team.
- Another advantage of affiliate tools, such as a search form, in comparison to an API is that the latter usually has limits on the number of requests per minute, while partner tools do not. If your website drives significant traffic, it’s important to make sure you provide unlimited searches. WayAway’s search form can do just that!
So, what’s next? Start by analyzing your audience and website potential. Installing an API is reasonable in cases in which you drive a lot of traffic and users strongly depend on the accuracy of the information you provide. Otherwise, if you are just starting out, placing affiliate tools, such as search forms, can be your best bet, as it’s easy and intuitive. With WayAway, you can promote flight tickets, help your audience organize the perfect trip, earn cashback, and grow a loyal community around your brand.
