Expedia Rapid alternative: no contract before the first call
Rapid is built for partners who sell inventory: you apply, you sign, and only then do you get to see whether the data helps. Piratefly answers one narrow question — is this fare good for this route, and when should I buy — over price history we observe and store ourselves. First call in a browser, no account. If you need bookable inventory, this is not that.
What Piratefly does not do
No inventory, no booking, no hotels or packages, no live availability, no commission. We are not affiliated with Expedia and we do not resell their data. What we have is a long observation history of real fares on real routes, and a verdict built on it.
What maps across, and what does not
| What you wanted from Rapid | Piratefly |
|---|---|
| Bookable inventory and rates | Not covered. Everything here is observed history, not a live availability query. |
| Hotels, packages, cars | Not covered. Flights only. |
| Is this fare good, historically? | A percentile over that route’s own observed history plus a verdict (buy / wait / your call). |
| Cheapest month to fly | GET /v1/analisi ranks months by median fare, with the sample size behind each one. |
| How far ahead to book | anticipoConsigliato is the booking window that has historically come out cheapest on that route. |
| Access: partner application, contract, credentials | 30 requests/day per IP with no key at all; $9.99/month removes the cap, card or USDC, key issued immediately. |
One call, no key
Cities by name, not IATA codes. This is a real response from the live API:
curl "https://next.piratefly.com/v1/analisi?origine=Stockholm&destinazione=Rome"{
"origine": "Stockholm",
"destinazione": "Rome",
"valuta": "EUR",
"verdetto": {
"livello": "ottimo",
"percentile": 9,
"medianaCent": 5600,
"minimoCent": 2500,
"campione": 23
},
"mesiPerConvenienza": [
{ "mese": 8, "medianaCent": 5900, "campione": 33 },
{ "mese": 10, "medianaCent": 8900, "campione": 74 }
],
"anticipoConsigliato": { "daGiorni": 56, "aGiorni": 83, "medianaCent": 5800 },
"osservazioni": 169
}Reading the response
percentile is where today’s cheapest fare sits in that route’s own history (9 = cheaper than 91% of everything we have seen), campione is how many observations that verdict rests on, mesiPerConvenienza ranks months by median fare, and anticipoConsigliato is the booking window that has historically come out cheapest. Prices are cents, EUR.
Try it, then decide
The free tier needs no account: paste the URL above in a browser. When 30 calls a day stops being enough, the Pro plan is on the API page.
Can this replace Rapid for a booking site?
No, and we would rather say so now. Rapid sells inventory; we only tell you whether a fare is good and when to buy. If you already have a booking path, we add the timing layer on top of it.
Do I need an account or an approval to start?
No. The free tier is 30 requests per day per IP with no key and no signup. Pro is $9.99/month for no daily cap, paid by card on Stripe or in USDC on Solana, with the key handed back immediately.
How many routes are covered?
We cover the routes we observe continuously, and we never show a verdict on fewer than 8 observations. Ask for a route we do not have and you get an honest empty answer, not an invented one.