Selling split-ticket itineraries

Overview

A split-ticket itinerary is a multi-slice trip made up of independent one-way offers — often from different airlines — instead of a single return or multi-city ticket from one carrier. Enabling split-ticket offers on a search gives the traveller a wider choice of possible itineraries to pick from, because each slice can be fulfilled by whichever one-way offer best fits.

What do you need to start?

This guide assumes you've built a basic "search and book" flow with the Duffel API. If you haven't, read through our Quick Start guide first. You should also be familiar with choosing your search response format, since split-ticket itineraries require the view=itineraries shape.
When you're ready, please get in touch with the Duffel support team at [email protected] to access to this feature.

Request

Two things need to be true to receive split-ticket itineraries:

  • Set include_split_ticket to true in the request body.

  • Add view=itineraries as a query parameter so the response can expose them in the grouped shape.

The include_split_ticket flag has no effect on single-slice (one-way) searches.
Shell
curl -X POST --compressed "https://api.duffel.com/air/offer_requests?view=itineraries"
  -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip"
  -H "Accept: application/json"
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"
  -H "Duffel-Version: v2"
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
  -d '{
  "data": {
    "include_split_ticket": true,
    "cabin_class": "economy",
    "passengers": [
      { "type": "adult" }
    ],
    "slices": [
      {
        "origin": "NYC",
        "destination": "LON",
        "departure_date": "2026-12-15"
      },
      {
        "origin": "LON",
        "destination": "NYC",
        "departure_date": "2026-12-20"
      }
    ]
  }
}'

Response

When include_split_ticket is enabled, you'll receive a mix of offers in the response:

  • type: "single_ticket" — a normal offer from one airline that covers every slice in the request. The customer books these exactly as they do today.

  • type: "split_ticket" — a one-way offer covering a single slice. Returned per slice alongside the single_ticket offers, so you can present alternative one-way combinations.

JSON
{
  "data": {
    "slices": [
      {
        "origin": "arp_jfk_us",
        "destination": "arp_lhr_gb",
        "itineraries": [
          {
            "segments": [
              /* ... */
            ],
            "brands": [
              {
                "fare_brand_name": "Economy Basic",
                "offers": [
                  {
                    "id": "off_00009htYpSCXrwaB9Dn456",
                    "type": "split_ticket",
                    "owner": "arl_00009VME7D6ivUu8dn35WK",
                    "total_amount": "230.00",
                    "total_currency": "GBP"
                  }
                ]
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
      // ...one slice per slice in the request
    ]
  }
}

Building a split-ticket trip

To build a split-ticket trip, pick one split_ticket offer from each slice in the response. single_ticket offers still cover the whole trip on their own — you choose one or the other, not both.

Pricing and booking

A split-ticket itinerary is not a single bookable unit. Each split_ticket offer is an independent offer, so it is priced and booked on its own through the same endpoints you already use for single-ticket offers. A two-slice split-ticket trip the customer selects looks like this end-to-end:
Search   POST /air/offer_requests?view=itineraries    → slice 0: [off_A (single_ticket), off_B (split_ticket), …]
                                                       → slice 1: [off_A (single_ticket), off_C (split_ticket), …]
Select   customer picks off_B + off_C
Price    GET  /air/offers/off_B                       → latest priced offer
         GET  /air/offers/off_C                       → latest priced offer
Book     POST /air/orders { selected_offers: [off_B] } → ord_001
         POST /air/orders { selected_offers: [off_C] } → ord_002

What to watch out for

  • One order per slice. Each order has its own PNR / airline booking reference and is independently changeable, refundable, and subject to its own airline's rules. Schedule changes or disruption on one slice don't propagate to the other.

  • You will need to manage partial success As you are now making multiple orders to fulfil a trip, you will have to be able to handle partial success where only a subset of the orders attempted succeed.

  • Separate payments and charges. Each order is paid for separately. This means two charges on the traveller's card or two debits from your balance. Even customers who understand they're buying a split-ticket itinerary can find two line items confusing.

This is the main trade-off of selling split-ticket itineraries: you expose more choice to the customer, but you take on managing the slices separately.

Keep learning