# /skyscanner/flights/dates

`POST /api/skyscanner/flights/dates`

Price: 1 credit

Find the cheapest Skyscanner flight price for each nearby departure date (and, for round trips, each nearby return date) around a requested date — the flexible-dates price grid. Origin and destination are Skyscanner place entity ids (resolve them via the places autosuggest). For round trips also pass a return date; the result is then a grid of departure x return date combinations. Each cell carries the cheapest total price, the cheapest non-stop price and the cheapest price with stops (in the requested currency), plus availability and a price-level indicator highlighting unusually low fares.

## How to use it

Cheapest-price-by-date grid between two Skyscanner place entity ids (origin, destination) around a depart_date (and optional return_date for round trips), for a cabin_class, adults and child_ages. Returns one option per nearby date (or departure x return date combination), each with departure_date, return_date, currency, price (cheapest total), direct_price (cheapest non-stop), non_direct_price (cheapest with stops), availability and price_category (e.g. 'low' marks an unusually cheap date).

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `origin` (string, required) — Origin place entity id (examples: "27544008"; pattern: ^\d+$)
- `destination` (string, required) — Destination place entity id (examples: "27537542"; pattern: ^\d+$)
- `depart_date` (string, required) — Outbound flight date (format: date; examples: "2026-08-15")
- `return_date` (string, nullable) — Return flight date for round trips; omit for one-way (format: date; examples: "2026-08-22")
- `cabin_class` (string) — Cabin class (default: "ECONOMY"; one of: "ECONOMY", "PREMIUM_ECONOMY", "BUSINESS", "FIRST")
- `adults` (integer) — Number of adult passengers (default: 1; min: 1; max: 8)
- `child_ages` (array) — Ages of child passengers (0-17) (default: [])
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of date options to return (min: 1)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "SkyscannerDateOption")
- `departure_date` (string, nullable)
- `return_date` (string, nullable)
- `currency` (string, nullable)
- `price` (number, nullable)
- `direct_price` (number, nullable)
- `non_direct_price` (number, nullable)
- `availability` (string, nullable)
- `direct_availability` (string, nullable)
- `price_category` (string, nullable)
- `direct_price_category` (string, nullable)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

No flexible-date prices found for the given route, date and passenger combination

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.