The GDS search page opens on the flight form, and the form is fully working. The connection behind it is not: no flight provider is wired up, so a flight search always comes back with zero results today. This article describes what the form does, what happens when you search, and what the results would look like once a flight provider is connected.
Opening the Flight Search
Go to Bookings > GDS Search. The page opens on the flight form — there is no Flights sub-menu and no service switcher on the page. You can also reach it from the GDS Multi-Service Booking page by selecting Flights and clicking Search Flights; that route adds a Return to Basket banner and changes the result button to Add to Basket.
Filling in the Search
- Choose the trip type: Round Trip, One Way or Multi-City. Round Trip is selected by default and is the only choice that shows a Return date.
- Type the origin in From (IATA Code or City) and the destination in To (IATA Code or City). These are plain text fields with no autocomplete; what you type is upper-cased and sent as-is, so an IATA code such as JNB or CPT is the safest input.
- Pick the Departure date, and the Return date on a round trip. Origin, destination and departure date are required — leaving one blank gives "Please fill in all required fields".
- Set the passenger counts: Adults (1–9), Children (2-11) and Infants (<2). They are added together into a single passenger count when the search is sent.
- Choose a Cabin Class: Economy, Premium Economy, Business or First Class.
- Click Search Flights.
The GDS Provider Chips
The GDS Providers chips (RateHawk, Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport) with their Select All and Clear links do not steer a flight search. Your selection is not sent with the request; the server decides on its own which providers have credentials, and currently reports all of them as not configured. The only effect of the chips is that clearing them all stops the search with "Please select at least one GDS provider".
What You See After Searching
The search runs, is logged for audit, and returns nothing. You get a "Found 0 flights" toast and the page keeps its empty state: Search for Flights with "Enter your travel details above to search via GDS". Nothing is broken and there is no error to report — there is simply no flight source to answer the query. Searches are rate limited to 20 per minute per user.
How Results Will Behave
The results view is already built, so it is worth knowing its limits before you rely on it:
- Each flight is a card showing the provider badge, airline and flight number, departure and arrival times with airports, duration, number of stops, booking class, baggage and the total price. A crossed-out base fare and the markup amount appear when a markup applies.
- The list is plain: there is no sorting and no filtering by airline, stops or departure window. Only hotel results have a filter sidebar.
- Cards are not clickable and there is no fare-rules or fare-breakdown view. The only control is the Book Now button (Add to Basket when you came from the GDS booking page).
- The baggage line is not a real allowance from a fare. It is derived from a single included-or-not flag and printed as either 2x23kg or 1x20kg, so confirm baggage with the airline before quoting it.
Pricing and the Basket
Markup is applied to the fare returned by the provider, using the pricing rules that match the flight service type and cabin class, and the card shows base fare, markup and total. If you came from the GDS booking page, Add to Basket carries that base price, markup and total onto the basket line. A flight is sold on the airline's behalf, so VAT is charged on its markup only.