Step 2: Book flights page

The processes involved in booking travel for yourself or for someone else or for multiple travellers are virtually the same. One key difference between the three different selections is that different profile data would be used for each one - either your profile data would be drawn into the booking, the profile data of someone else or that of multiple travellers. The other key difference is that in the case of booking for multiple travellers, after you have completed the booking information for the first traveller, the process must then be repeated for the other travellers.

Price or availability

You can either search for flights by price or availability.

• If you search by price, you will be presented with the best fares that each available airline has to offer. Most of the time this type of search should suit your travel schedule and will make it easier to reduce costs. The search does not include all available flights, just the least expensive ones.
• If you search by availability, you will be shown all available flights. Prices will not initially be shown but calculated in a further step. You may find this type of search useful if the results shown via searching by price did not match your travel schedule.

Journey types

Return and one way journeys act in the usual way. An explanation of multi-destination is given below.

Multi-Destination - this type of search allows you to search for and book the flights for several segments of a trip in one go. For example, it would cater for the following scenario:

• Segment 1 - staff need a flight from New York to Los Angeles.
• Segment 2 - they need to stay there for three days and then fly from Los Angeles to London.
• Segment 3 - after five days they require the Eurostar railway from London to Paris. They need to stay there for two days and then drive to Lille.
• Segment 4 - they then need to return to New York by flying from Lille.

The various segments are combined into one fare.

To complete the book flights page:

1. Choose to search by price or availability and choose the journey type.
2. Start to type in the departure airport in the Leaving From box and click on it or press enter when it appears in the drop-down list. Repeat for the Going To box.

   Tips:
   
   You can search for an airport using any part of the description - airport codes are a quick method. For example, John F Kennedy Airport is listed as "New York, John F Kennedy International, United States (JFK)". Therefore, it could be retrieved by typing "JFK", "New York" or "John".
   
   In the case of cities that contain multiple airports, you do not have to specify which particular one you wish to travel from or to. For example, you could choose to go from London All Airports to Tokyo All Airports.

3. If you are making a return journey but wish to return from a different place, clear the Same Return Details check box and fill in the Return From and Return To boxes.
4. Complete the Departure Date box by clicking on the calendar icon and selecting the required date. Alternatively, you may type the date into the box.

   Tip: For return journeys, you can choose your departure and return dates at the same time by clicking and dragging on the departure calendar.

5. Select a departure time from the drop-down menu and choose how flexible you are willing to be via the +/- Hours menu. For example, for a departure time of 9:00, +/- 3 hours, times from 6:00 to 12:00 would be considered.
6. If applicable, select a return date and time.
7. If you are making a multi-destination trip and need to add another segment, click Add Segment. To remove a segment, click the cross in the top right-side corner of the segment.
8. Expand the Advanced Options section and make the relevant selections.

   Tip: When booking domestic flights within the UK, you may wish to check the Include Rail Search box, allowing you to compare the differences in cost and time between a rail and air journey. The cheapest rail and air fares are displayed at the top of the next stage in the booking process. You can switch between the rail and flight lists by clicking the tabs on the next page.

9. Click Search.