Search bus trips between two cities on a date.

curl -s https://wield.run/api/v1/recipes/flixbus.de/search-trips | shasum -a 256
# 7b98cdd5511986941fc9f36bcae5172d1ebcc93394c0951578c41f019696666e

{
  "description": "Searches FlixBus/FlixTrain trips like the shop's own search: departure and arrival time and station, duration, transfers, bus or train, seats left and the price the shop shows (including the platform fee). City names are free text; the first match is used and returned. Includes a link to the same search in the FlixBus shop.",
  "effect": "read",
  "id": "flixbus.de/search-trips",
  "keywords": [
    "flixbus",
    "flixtrain",
    "fernbus",
    "bus",
    "busreise",
    "busverbindung",
    "günstig reisen",
    "coach",
    "bus ticket",
    "bus trip",
    "intercity bus",
    "cheap travel"
  ],
  "output": {
    "schema": {
      "properties": {
        "currency": {
          "const": "EUR"
        },
        "date": {
          "format": "date",
          "type": "string"
        },
        "from": {
          "description": "City actually used",
          "type": "string"
        },
        "shop_url": {
          "description": "The same search in the FlixBus shop, to book",
          "format": "uri",
          "type": "string"
        },
        "to": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "trips": {
          "items": {
            "properties": {
              "arrival": {
                "type": "string"
              },
              "available": {
                "type": "boolean"
              },
              "departure": {
                "description": "ISO 8601 with offset",
                "type": "string"
              },
              "duration_min": {
                "type": "integer"
              },
              "from_station": {
                "type": [
                  "string",
                  "null"
                ]
              },
              "means": {
                "items": {
                  "enum": [
                    "bus",
                    "train"
                  ]
                },
                "type": "array"
              },
              "price_eur": {
                "description": "Price as the shop shows it, platform fee included",
                "type": [
                  "number",
                  "null"
                ]
              },
              "price_without_fee_eur": {
                "type": [
                  "number",
                  "null"
                ]
              },
              "seats_left": {
                "type": [
                  "integer",
                  "null"
                ]
              },
              "status": {
                "type": "string"
              },
              "to_station": {
                "type": [
                  "string",
                  "null"
                ]
              },
              "transfers": {
                "type": "integer"
              }
            },
            "type": "object"
          },
          "type": "array"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "from",
        "to",
        "date",
        "trips"
      ],
      "type": "object"
    },
    "value": "{from: steps.from_city.name, to: steps.to_city.name, date: params.date, currency: 'EUR', shop_url: join('', ['https://shop.flixbus.de/search?departureCity=', steps.from_city.id, '&arrivalCity=', steps.to_city.id, '&rideDate=', join('.', reverse(split(params.date, '-'))), '&adult=', to_string(params.adults)]), trips: params.only_available && steps.search.trips[?available] || steps.search.trips}"
  },
  "params": {
    "additionalProperties": false,
    "properties": {
      "adults": {
        "default": 1,
        "maximum": 9,
        "minimum": 1,
        "type": "integer"
      },
      "date": {
        "description": "Departure date YYYY-MM-DD",
        "pattern": "^\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2}$",
        "type": "string"
      },
      "from": {
        "description": "Departure city, e.g. 'Berlin'",
        "maxLength": 80,
        "minLength": 2,
        "type": "string"
      },
      "only_available": {
        "default": true,
        "description": "Drop sold-out and otherwise unbookable trips",
        "type": "boolean"
      },
      "to": {
        "description": "Arrival city, e.g. 'München'",
        "maxLength": 80,
        "minLength": 2,
        "type": "string"
      }
    },
    "required": [
      "from",
      "to",
      "date"
    ],
    "type": "object"
  },
  "provenance": {
    "method": "browser-inspect",
    "notes": "spikes/flixbus.md. Public search gateway global.api.flixbus.com (CloudFront + API Gateway, no bot management on reads). Cross-origin from shop.flixbus.de and its CORS answer has no Allow-Credentials, so every request uses credentials 'omit' (include fails). site.origin is shop.flixbus.de because www.flixbus.de's search form does a tab-under to a hotel affiliate. results is an object keyed by trip uid, so it is sorted by departure; station names are joined from the top-level stations map.",
    "recorded_at": "2026-11-07T11:25:00+01:00",
    "recorded_by": "C4"
  },
  "requires_login": false,
  "schema": "https://wield.run/schema/recipe/v1.json",
  "site": {
    "country": "DE",
    "id": "flixbus.de",
    "language": "de",
    "name": "FlixBus",
    "origin": "https://shop.flixbus.de",
    "origins": [
      "https://global.api.flixbus.com"
    ]
  },
  "steps": [
    {
      "expect": {
        "assert": "length(body) > `0`",
        "content_type": "json",
        "status": [
          200
        ]
      },
      "extract": {
        "json": {
          "id": "[0].id",
          "name": "[0].name"
        }
      },
      "id": "from_city",
      "request": {
        "credentials": "omit",
        "headers": {
          "Accept": "application/json"
        },
        "method": "GET",
        "query": {
          "country": "de",
          "flixbus_cities_only": "false",
          "is_train_only": "false",
          "lang": "de",
          "popular_stations": "true",
          "q": "{{params.from}}",
          "stations": "true"
        },
        "url": "https://global.api.flixbus.com/search/autocomplete/cities"
      }
    },
    {
      "expect": {
        "assert": "length(body) > `0`",
        "content_type": "json",
        "status": [
          200
        ]
      },
      "extract": {
        "json": {
          "id": "[0].id",
          "name": "[0].name"
        }
      },
      "id": "to_city",
      "request": {
        "credentials": "omit",
        "headers": {
          "Accept": "application/json"
        },
        "method": "GET",
        "query": {
          "country": "de",
          "flixbus_cities_only": "false",
          "is_train_only": "false",
          "lang": "de",
          "popular_stations": "true",
          "q": "{{params.to}}",
          "stations": "true"
        },
        "url": "https://global.api.flixbus.com/search/autocomplete/cities"
      }
    },
    {
      "expect": {
        "assert": "body.trips != null",
        "content_type": "json",
        "status": [
          200
        ]
      },
      "extract": {
        "json": {
          "trips": "let $st = stations in sort_by(values(trips[0].results || `{}`), &departure.date)[].{departure: departure.date, arrival: arrival.date, from_station: let $sid = departure.station_id in items($st)[?[0] == $sid] | [0][1].name, to_station: let $sid = arrival.station_id in items($st)[?[0] == $sid] | [0][1].name, duration_min: duration.hours * `60` + duration.minutes, transfers: length(legs || `[]`) - `1`, means: legs[].means_of_transport, price_eur: price.total_with_platform_fee || price.total || `null`, price_without_fee_eur: price.total || `null`, available: status == 'available', status: status, seats_left: available.seats || `null`}"
        }
      },
      "id": "search",
      "request": {
        "credentials": "omit",
        "headers": {
          "Accept": "application/json"
        },
        "method": "GET",
        "query": {
          "currency": "EUR",
          "departure_date": "{{params.date | date:DD.MM.YYYY}}",
          "from_city_id": "{{steps.from_city.id}}",
          "include_after_midnight_rides": "1",
          "locale": "de",
          "products": "{\"adult\":{{params.adults}}}",
          "search_by": "cities",
          "to_city_id": "{{steps.to_city.id}}"
        },
        "url": "https://global.api.flixbus.com/search/service/v4/search"
      }
    }
  ],
  "task": "Search bus trips between two cities on a date",
  "tos": {
    "notes": "FlixBus terms restrict automated extraction of timetable and price data. One user-initiated search at a time from the user's browser, 3 requests. Booking stays in the FlixBus shop via shop_url.",
    "reviewed": false
  },
  "verify": {
    "checks": [
      "length(output.trips) > `0`",
      "output.from == 'Berlin'",
      "output.to == 'München'",
      "output.trips[0].price_eur > `0`",
      "output.trips[0].duration_min > `200`",
      "starts_with(output.trips[0].departure, '2026-11-20')",
      "output.trips[0].from_station != `null`"
    ],
    "example_params": {
      "date": "2026-11-20",
      "from": "Berlin",
      "to": "München"
    },
    "max_ms": 4000
  },
  "version": 1
}