Duffel Flights and Travel Booking API
Duffel developer-first flights and travel REST API for businesses to search, book, and manage airline tickets directly through NDC (New Distribution Capability) connections to 300+ airlines, hotels, and car hire, enabling agents, OTAs, and platforms to build travel booking products with real-time inventory, ancillary services, seat selection, and post-booking management through a single modern API. Enables AI agents to manage flight search for travel booking automation, handle offer selection and seat reservation for airline checkout automation, access booking confirmation and ticket issuance for travel fulfillment automation, retrieve order management for booking modification automation, manage ancillary services for baggage and upgrade upsell automation, handle cancellation and refund for travel reversal automation, access seat map for flight seat selection automation, retrieve real-time pricing for dynamic fare automation, manage loyalty program for frequent flyer award booking automation, and integrate Duffel with travel app, corporate booking, expense management, and OTA platforms for end-to-end flight and travel booking automation.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
Travel booking. ATOL, IATA, GDPR. Bearer token. UK/EU. Passenger and payment data.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
A travel startup, corporate booking platform, or digital agent wanting AI agents to automate flight search, booking, and post-booking management through Duffel's developer-first modern flights API with NDC connections to 300+ airlines.
Avoid When
OFFER EXPIRES QUICKLY: Duffel flight offer prices expire in minutes; automated booking must confirm offer before expiry; automated delayed booking after search creates offer_no_longer_available and requires new search. NDC CONTENT IS AIRLINE-DEPENDENT: Duffel NDC availability varies by airline; automated flight search may return different content than GDS (Sabre/Amadeus) for some airlines; automated assumption of complete inventory creates gaps for airlines with limited NDC. TICKETING IS ASYNC FOR SOME AIRLINES: Duffel ticket issuance may be asynchronous for some airlines (confirmed then ticketed); automated fulfillment must await ticket_issued status not just booking confirmed; automated on-booking fulfillment creates passenger without valid ticket for async airlines. PAYMENT MUST BE DUFFEL BALANCE OR CARD: Duffel payment requires either Duffel Balance (pre-funded) or card through Duffel; automated booking must configure payment method; automated payment assumption without balance or card creates payment_required error blocking ticket issuance.
Use Cases
- • Searching and booking flights for travel AI agent checkout automation
- • Managing flight modifications and cancellations from travel booking agents
- • Selecting seats and ancillaries for flight upgrade automation agents
- • Building corporate travel booking tools from expense management platform agents
Not For
- • Hotel and vacation rental inventory (primary focus is flights; hotels are add-on)
- • Ground transportation and tours (Duffel is air travel primary)
- • Baggage claim and airport operations (Duffel is pre-travel booking only)
Interface
Authentication
Duffel uses API token (Bearer) for authentication. REST API with JSON. London, UK HQ. Founded 2017 by Steve Domin and Tom Bates. Backed by Benchmark, Index Ventures, Blossom Capital ($186M raised). Products: Flight search, booking, seat selection, ancillaries, hotels, car hire, stays. SDKs: Node.js, Python, Ruby. ATOL-licensed (UK). IATA accredited. 300+ airlines. Competes with Amadeus and Sabre developer programs for modern travel tech.
Pricing
London UK. Benchmark/Index backed. Per-booking pricing. ATOL licensed. IATA accredited.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ OFFER EXPIRY REQUIRES RAPID BOOKING: Duffel flight offers expire quickly (5-10 minutes); automated booking workflow must minimize time between search and booking; automated user review step longer than offer TTL creates offer_expired and requires repeat search
- ⚠ PAYMENT MUST BE CONFIGURED BEFORE BOOKING: Duffel booking requires either pre-funded Duffel Balance or card payment configured in order; automated booking must include payment object; automated booking without payment creates payment_required and order not created
- ⚠ TICKET ISSUANCE IS ASYNC FOR SOME CARRIERS: Duffel order status transitions from confirmed to ticketed asynchronously for some airlines; automated fulfillment must await order.ticketed webhook not just order.confirmed; automated on-confirm fulfillment creates passenger with booking reference but no valid e-ticket
- ⚠ SEAT SELECTION MUST BE WITHIN OFFER VALIDITY: Duffel seat selection (seatmaps and order change) must happen before offer expiry; automated seat selection workflow must complete before offer TTL; automated delayed seat selection creates offer_expired for selected seats
- ⚠ CANCELLATION POLICIES VARY BY FARE: Duffel order cancellations depend on airline fare conditions (fully refundable to non-refundable); automated cancellation must check cancellation conditions before initiating; automated assumption of free cancellation creates unexpected penalty fees
Alternatives
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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-07.