# Farehound Phase 0 research addendum

Checked 2026-10-12 (America/New_York). Primary sources only. This supplements the main source ranking; no API accounts were created and no live fare searches were performed. “Unpublished” means no public number was found in the cited material, not that the service is free. Airline counts are vendor claims and do not establish coverage of a particular route or fare. API access is conditional on each provider's agreement; permission to redistribute a public metasearch display must be confirmed during onboarding.

## Direct airline NDC

For every airline below, production search latency/SLA, rate limits, developer fees and minimum commercial commitments were **not publicly established** by this research. They require confirmation with the supplier. No latency estimates or cost ballparks should be invented. Sandbox fares are not live fares.

| Candidate | Verified access / coverage | Price opportunity and selection implication |
|---|---|---|
| Air France–KLM | Official starting guide describes direct APIs, intermediaries and an agent tool; its commercial options are for IATA agencies. Separate test registration instructions issue sandbox keys after registration/terms acceptance. | Guide describes distribution-surcharge exemption and content closer to airline direct channels. Worth obtaining through an approved aggregator first. A sandbox key does not establish commercial production or ticketing access. |
| Lufthansa Group | Direct NDC capability table lists IATA/ARC agencies and LH, LX, OS, SN, EN, 4Y plus specified interline content. NDC partner program has a registration path. The generic Lufthansa OpenAPI portal says new registration is on hold; it is not interchangeable with an approved NDC agreement. | Bilateral NDC Smart Offer includes discounted fares, continuous pricing and certain exclusive products. Public-model NDC via GDS is a different commercial/content offer. The current page states an initial €8/ticket DCC for public NDC through Amadeus, Sabre or Travelport; recheck before relying on it. Complex open-jaw/multi-city shopping is marked work-in-progress in the direct capability table, material to the reference trip. |
| British Airways | Current NDC registration and build/test URLs exist, but their dynamic pages did not expose readable procedural text to this research. Official **May 2017** commercial guide describes B1 registration, test key approval, certification and subsequent live onboarding. | Treat the old guide as historical corroboration, not a verified 2026 checklist. Contract/certification and contemporary commercial terms must be obtained from BA. Do not make a new-account launch depend on assumed direct access. |
| American Airlines | Current Global Sales page says direct agency API ticketing requires ARC/IATA accreditation. Direct integration is targeted at larger agencies/TMCs/technology providers; AA estimates 3–6 months, varying by needs. Approved technology partners are an alternative. | Airline-specific access; insufficient evidence to promise a price advantage on every itinerary. Aggregate through a credentialed provider before considering dedicated direct integration. |
| United | United for Business identifies non-GDS aggregators, GDS and Custom API/Direct Connect. Direct access has an application form and is described as resource-intensive and oriented toward large OTAs/technical agencies. | United describes continuous pricing with extra price points and pricing equal to or lower than traditional channels. This is a channel capability claim, not proof Farehound beats a provider already carrying United NDC. |
| Qantas | Qantas supports certified technology partners or direct connections. Its separate agency portal requires an Agency Connect account and valid IATA/TIDS/ARC; TIDS agencies need a consolidator to ticket. | Useful Australia coverage after commercial approval. The agency portal's lack of technical setup fees must not be represented as free public API access. Portal and direct API onboarding are different products. |

Direct NDC primary links:

- [AFKL production starting guide](https://klmprod.mashery.com/ndc_starting_guide); [AFKL test starting guide](https://klm.mashery.com/ndc_starting_guide).
- [Lufthansa capabilities](https://lhgroupairlines.com/ndc/en/about-ndc/capabilities); [offer models](https://lhgroupairlines.com/ndc/en/ndc-offers/ndc-offers-in-detail); [partner registration](https://form.lhgroupairlines.com/); [generic OpenAPI registration status](https://developer.lufthansa.com/).
- [BA NDC registration](https://ndc.ba.com/start/ndc-registrations); [build/test](https://ndc.ba.com/start/build-and-test-the-api); [historical May 2017 official guide](https://developer.ba.com/files/British_Airways_Commercial_Userguide_May_17_1.pdf).
- [AA retailing and connection options](https://www.exploreamerican.com/globalsales/ndc-overview/).
- [United agency onboarding](https://united.business/NDC-travel-agencies); [United NDC content claims](https://united.business/NDC).
- [Qantas NDC](https://www.qantas.com/en-au/business/qantas-ndc); [agency portal requirements](https://agencyconnect.qantas.com/en-us/ndc/distribution-platform-portal/register); [portal scope and setup fees](https://www.qantas.com/agencyconnect/nz/en/qantas-ndc/qantas-distribution-platform-portal/what-is-the-qantas-distribution-platform.html).

NDC is an open industry communication standard, not an entitlement to any airline's credentials or private fares: [IATA developer explanation](https://developer.iata.org/en/ndc/).

## Consolidator, wholesaler and NDC aggregation candidates

| Candidate | Access / coverage | Published cost and commitments | Latency / terms / disposition |
|---|---|---|---|
| AirGateway | Sandbox and production API keys are separate; certification required for live access. Pricing page advertises 35+ major NDC airlines and agency IATA/PCC use. | Direct API: €100/month and €1 per issued booking, removed for selected airlines. **Same page has conflicting setup language**: banner says no setup/implementation cost, API feature list says one-time €2,500 implementation fee. Partner API €50/month is a different connection product. Get a written quote before budgeting. | No numeric search SLA or QPS allowance verified. Pricing page publishes Look-to-Book `1:2.000`; confirm how fan-out counts. Attractive transparent-cost NDC option after confirming agency/ticketing eligibility and production permissions. [Pricing](https://airgateway.com/pricing/?type=agw-api), [environments/certification](https://support.airgateway.com/en-US/kb/article/4/introduction-to-airgateway-platform-api). |
| Mystifly SSP | Sales-led multisource platform offering NDC, LCC, GDS and consolidator marketplace, a normalized API, fulfillment and servicing. | No public API tariff, minimum, deposit or credit commitment found on the cited official product page. Request all in writing; no substantiated ballpark. | No numeric SLA/rate limit verified. Potentially useful wholesale/private-fare complement after commercial qualification and route tests. [Official product/access](https://mystifly.com/). |
| TBO Air | Official API guide describes commercial agreement coordination and airline/net fare access; JSON REST endpoints cover authentication, search-related workflow, quote, booking and ticketing. | Public tariff, minimum and deposit not established. Commercial quote required. | “Real time” marketing is not a measurable latency SLA. No numeric rate limit verified. Candidate for an incremental consolidator channel, conditional on market, accreditation/settlement and public-display permission. [Guide](https://searchapi.tboair.com/), [API methods](https://searchapi.tboair.com/Help). |
| Travelfusion | tfFlight advertises 400+ LCC and 70+ NDC airlines; tfAir separately aggregates distressed inventory from airlines/tour operators/specialists. Test documentation is login-gated. | Buyer API tariff, minimum and deposit not established. Do not misapply airline-side NDC-platform pricing to a travel buyer contract. | No numeric live-search SLA/rate allowance verified. Terms restrict use to the contracted customer/permitted purpose. High potential LCC breadth, but commercial onboarding and coverage testing precede integration. [Products](https://corporate.travelfusion.com/products-services), [test portal](https://xmltest.travelfusion.com/), [terms](https://www.travelfusion.com/terms). |

Aggregation does not itself confer negotiated/private fares: eligibility and selling rights remain contractual. There is no primary-source evidence here for a universal percentage saving or a minimum monthly cost for Mystifly, TBO or Travelfusion.

## ATPCO fare filing

ATPCO distributes fares, rules, taxes and ancillary/product data that pricing systems consume. This is feasible as a commercial data subscription, but no self-service independent-builder price, minimum commitment or instant production-access path was verified. [Official overview](https://www.atpco.net/sites/atpco-public/files/all_pdfs/ATPCO_Playbook_web.pdf).

**Architectural inference:** a filed fare is not a presently available seat or ticketable offer for a particular passenger/date. A builder still needs availability, schedule/routing, rule/tax pricing and a booking/ticketing channel. Buying filing data alone does not provide Farehound's live, bookable search results. ATPCO's official dynamic-pricing document also explains that distribution/security restrictions can limit which subscribers may display/sell a fare, including public fares limited to airline direct/NDC channels. [ATPCO dynamic-pricing implementation discussion (historical draft)](https://www.atpco.net/sites/atpco-public/files/2019-09/dynamic-pricing-dpe_impguide.pdf).

The published subscription schedule describes periodic transmissions, not per-search live availability; its international and US/Canada schedules differ. Treat it as an example of feed delivery and obtain current contractual cadence, rather than promising a live-search SLA. [Official subscription schedule](https://www.atpco.net/sites/atpco-public/files/all_pdfs/Data-Subscription-Schedule.pdf). Exclude a raw ATPCO feed from the initial consumer search implementation.

## Scraping assessment

| Target | Primary-source restrictions | Engineering implication |
|---|---|---|
| KAYAK | Terms updated August 17, 2026 expressly prohibit scraping/automated tools without written permission, bypassing restrictions, commercial exploitation without permission and using the site to develop competing products. | An unapproved Farehound scraper violates the stated site terms. Use a permitted partner contract instead. No public acceptable scraping rate or latency guarantee. [Terms §4](https://www.kayak.com/terms-of-use). |
| Google Flights | Google's general terms forbid automated access contrary to machine-readable restrictions. Its robots file disallows `/travel/flights/search`, `/travel/flights/s/` and `/travel/flights/booking`. | Scraping those disallowed flight endpoints conflicts with the stated terms. A publicly visible result is not an API licence. [Terms](https://policies.google.com/terms?hl=en-US), [robots](https://www.google.com/robots.txt). |
| Expedia | Consumer terms restrict use to personal/noncommercial purposes and forbid scraping/automated copying, bypassing access measures, deep linking and framing. | An unapproved commercial scraper conflicts with the stated terms; use a partner API agreement. No public scraping allowance or SLA. [Terms §2](https://www.expedia.com/legal/terms). |

Browser-rendered results can be technically read, but that does not establish a stable or authorised production feed. Google documents automated-traffic detection, reCAPTCHA and network blocking, supporting a real operational failure risk; no safe throughput number is published there. [Google support](https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/86640?hl=en-uk). Contract restrictions and potential legal disputes must not be equated with a universal statement that all scraping is criminal. This build should exclude these unapproved scrapers.

## What is actually verified about KAYAK's supply

KAYAK says it compares hundreds of travel sites and displays airline, OTA and other distribution-provider offers. It acknowledges incomplete coverage. It also identifies itself as part of Booking Holdings. Ownership alone does **not** prove access to every sibling company's private fares or wholesale agreement. [How it works](https://www.kayak.com/c/help/about/how-does-kayak-work.61876.faq), [data sources/coverage](https://www.kayak.com/c/help/about/).

Amadeus explicitly documented a 2021 renewal/expansion of its flight-search and MetaConnect relationship with KAYAK. This verifies that relationship at that date, not an exhaustive 2026 supply diagram. This research did **not** verify direct current KAYAK contracts with all of Sabre, Travelport, ATPCO or every direct NDC airline. Do not repeat that proposed inventory stack as established fact. [Amadeus announcement](https://amadeus.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/amadeus-kayak-renew-expand-commitment-to-deliver-fast-quality-online-flight-comparison-experience).

**Correction to the initial premise:** KAYAK now publicly advertises a partner Travel API, including flights and live prices. Its application asks for business/use-case details and offers a free sandbox using test-style data. Production keys follow approval for a full affiliate integration. No public per-request price or production eligibility guarantee is shown. Its consumer-site restrictions mean approval for a competitor/combined metasearch use case must be explicit. This is not unrestricted anonymous API access, but “KAYAK has no API” is incorrect. [Official API programme](https://affiliates.kayak.com/apis).

## Priority within this addendum

1. **Apply for KAYAK partner access** as a breadth/deep-link option if its permitted use accommodates Farehound. Approval is uncertain; do not make initial availability depend on it.
2. **Evaluate AirGateway** once ticketing/agency eligibility and its contradictory setup pricing are resolved. It offers a specific public cost baseline and broad NDC coverage.
3. **Request Mystifly and TBO commercial terms** for potentially different net/consolidator content; compare exact total fares and route coverage before committing.
4. **Consider Travelfusion** for LCC breadth if negotiated economics support the search volume.
5. **Add direct airline NDC selectively** where measured route coverage or commercial terms justify integration effort; it duplicates content already present in aggregators on many routes.
6. **Exclude raw ATPCO as a live offer source and exclude unapproved scraping.**

This is an opportunity ranking among the researched additions, not a replacement for the complete GDS/aggregator ranking. No measured live comparisons exist yet. No numerical ceiling such as “10% better than Duffel” is justified. More sources create a chance of finding a lower qualifying offer; source overlap, eligibility, coverage, fees and fare expiry can leave the best result unchanged.