Search for Flights

Schedule mode vs shop mode, city codes, round-trip and multi-city, the price calendar, cabin and connection filters, and date stepping.

The shape of a search

A search is a date, a city pair, and optional qualifiers chained with /:

15NOVJFKLAX        # Nov 15, JFK to LAX
15NOVJFKLAX/AA     # One carrier — and this shops live (see modes, below)
15NOVNYCLAX        # City code: every NYC airport (JFK/LGA/EWR) in one search

The DDMMM date prefix is part of every search — a bare pair defaults to today and comes up empty late in the day (Getting Started covers the trap). Dates must be real calendar dates; 31NOV is rejected, not coerced.

Both airports and IATA metropolitan city codes work. A city code — NYC, LON, PAR, WAS, TYO — fans out to every member airport in a single search, the airline resolving it natively. City-code searches always run live (shop mode, below); use a specific airport code to narrow to one field.

Schedule mode vs shop mode

Every search runs in one of two modes, and knowing which you're in explains everything about what comes back:

Schedule mode — a cached timetable. Instant, nonstop flights only, no pricing and no availability. You get this for one shape only: a bare one-way airport pair with no carrier and no qualifiers, like 15NOVJFKLAX.
Shop mode — a live call to the airline. Two to three seconds, and what returns are priced offers with validated availability — real inventory, real money, bookable rows.

This split exists because NDC has no availability brackets to paste into a timetable — the Y9/B9/M9 line you'd read in a GDS schedule display doesn't exist here. A cached schedule can only show times; price and seats require asking the airline.

Schedule-mode search results: an instant nonstop timetable for the city pair with flight numbers and times, no prices — Schedule mode: the nonstop timetable, instantly — times but no prices, because NDC keeps inventory out of schedules.

Almost everything flips a search into shop mode automatically. Schedule mode is the exception, not the rule — any one of these shops:

a carrier qualifier (/AA) — asking about one airline means asking that airline
a round-trip or multi-city itinerary
a city code in either position (NYC, LON, …)
a connection modifier — /ANY, /1STOP, VIA-, AVOID-, MCT, MXT
a cabin (/J), an alliance (/*A), a brand filter, or a carrier exclusion (/-UA)
pricing qualifiers, or an explicit /SHOP

15NOVJFKLAX        # Schedule: cached timetable, no prices
15NOVJFKLAX/AA     # Shops — a carrier qualifier goes live to that airline
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP   # Shops explicitly, all carriers
15NOVJFKLAX/ANY    # Shops — connections need validated availability

The rule of thumb: if the question is "when do the nonstops run", you get a schedule; the moment you narrow by anything the timetable can't answer, you're talking to the airline.

Shop-mode results: live priced offers with fare brands and totals per row, ready to select and book — Shop mode: the airline's live offers — priced, branded, availability-validated.

Round-trip and multi-city

Write each leg as its own date-plus-pair, chained on one line:

15NOVJFKLAX/20NOVLAXJFK                # Round-trip
15NOVJFKLAX/18NOVLAXSFO/20NOVSFOORD    # Multi-city, three legs

Both auto-shop, and for good reason: a round-trip is priced as one journey, and that price routinely differs from two one-ways. Every leg carries its own date.

The /SHOP price calendar

Add a day count to /SHOP and the answer changes shape: instead of offers for one date, you get a calendar grid of the lowest price per date, cheapest highlighted:

15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP7  # Lowest price per day, Nov 15 + 7 days forward
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP7/AA # Same, one carrier
18NOVJFKLAX/AA     # Calendar says the 18th is cheapest? Search it, then select

Ranges are forward-only from the given date: /SHOP is +1 day, /SHOP3 +3, /SHOP7 +7. The calendar is a scouting pass — identify the date, then run the dated search to get bookable rows.

Cabin, alliance, carrier, brand

These are shop-mode filters — chain them onto a /SHOP search in any order:

15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/J        # Business cabin: /E economy, /W premium, /J business, /F first
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/*A       # Star Alliance: *A · Oneworld: *O · SkyTeam: *S
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/-UA      # Exclude a carrier
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/-BA/-UA  # Exclusions stack
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/BASIC    # Only offers in the BASIC fare brand
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/-BASIC   # Everything except BASIC

Long cabin forms (/ECONOMY, /PREMIUM, /BUSINESS, /FIRST) work too, and /Y is an alias for /E.

The cabin filter at search is not the same lever as cabin at pricing (WPJ and friends — see Pricing). The search-level filter tells the airline to build its offers in that cabin. That matters because airlines cap how many offers a search returns: on a route with deep economy inventory, business offers can be crowded out entirely unless you ask for them at search time.

Connections

A bare one-way search shows the nonstop timetable. Connection modifiers open up routings — and auto-shop, because a connection is only worth showing once its availability is validated:

15NOVJFKLAX/NONSTOP       # Nonstops only
15NOVJFKLAX/1STOP/AA      # Up to one connection
15NOVJFKLAX/2STOP         # Up to two
15NOVJFKLAX/ANY           # Unlimited — every routing the airline will build

Four more qualifiers steer where and how long the connection is:

15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/VIA-ORD   # Prefer connecting over Chicago
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/AVOID-DFW # Keep Dallas out of the routing
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/MCT90     # At least 90 minutes to connect
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/MXT360    # At most 6 hours ground time

Passenger counts

Passenger mix is a search-time input — offers are priced per passenger type, so declare the party up front as /<count><PTC> tokens:

15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/2ADT           # 2 adults
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/2ADT/1CHD      # 2 adults + 1 child
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/2ADT/1CHD/1INF # + 1 lap infant
15NOVJFKLAX/SHOP/CM/1ADT/1INS   # Infant WITH a seat — INS, priced as its own PTC

No token means one adult; the ceiling is nine passengers across all types. ADT, CHD (or CNN), and INF are the standard three — and note the distinction NDC actually prices: INF is a lap infant, INS is an infant occupying a seat, a separately priced passenger type on carriers that support it. Beyond the standard set, any 3-letter PTC passes through — YTH, STU, SRC, MIL, or an airline-specific code; whether the airline honors it with a distinct fare is the airline's call.

Step the date

After any single-date search, move the date without retyping. Comma sits left of period on the keyboard, so , steps back, . steps forward:

15NOVJFKLAX/AA     # Search, then…
.                  # Re-run for Nov 16
,                  # Back to Nov 15
.3                 # Jump 3 days forward
,2                 # Jump 2 days back

The step re-runs the last search verbatim — carrier, cabin, /SHOP, connection rules, passenger mix, every modifier — changing only the date. It works on single-date searches only; a round-trip or multi-city has more than one date to step, so re-enter those in full.

Results in hand, the next move is turning rows into an itinerary: Select Flights and Itineraries.