What it is
FlightScout is a small, mobile-first tool on leej.uk/flightscout that finds today's cheapest public Google Flights fares in pounds for your party. You type a city or airport (autocomplete to IATA), choose one way or return, set adults, children and infants, then tap Search.
Turn on Nearby days (±3) and it also checks departures three days either side of your date — seven days for one-way; for a return it keeps the trip length and slides the outbound ±3. A seven-day pound strip highlights the cheapest day so you can pick it before you book.
Nothing runs in the background and nothing is scraped on a schedule. A search only happens when you ask. Matching searches are remembered on the server for about five minutes so a quick refresh does not hit Google again.
Who it's for
People in the UK comparing economy fares for a trip with a mix of adults, children and infants, who want a pound price and a straight link out to the airline rather than another booking marketplace.
What it does
- City autocompleteType a city or airport; picks resolve to IATA codes.
- Party sizesAdults 12+, children 2–11, infants on lap and infants in seat (max 9; lap infants ≤ adults).
- Nearby days (±3)Optional toggle: seven departures around your date (return keeps trip length). Cheapest day highlighted on a £ strip.
- On-demand onlySearch runs when you ask. No background jobs or scheduled scraping.
- Airline book linksEach option has Book with {Airline}, plus Open search on Google Flights.
- Short cacheAbout five minutes for the same route, dates and passengers.
- Rate limitedAbout 20 searches per hour per IP.
Why I built it
I wanted a quiet, on-demand way to check cheapest fares for a real party size without leaving leej.uk or running a scraper all day. FlightScout only talks to Google Flights when you hit Search, shows options with stops and times, and sends you to the airline (or Google Flights) to finish booking.
Fares jump day to day. Shifting by a day or two often finds a cheaper fare without changing the trip much — that is why Nearby days exists. It is not affiliated with Google. Fares move; always confirm on the airline site before you pay.
How it's built
The front end is static HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript (leej palette, flat background, viewport locked against zoom). On Search it calls a Cloudflare Worker at /flightscout/api/search, which encodes the Google Flights tfs protobuf (passenger types packed as ADULT=1, CHILD=2, INFANT_IN_SEAT=3, INFANT_ON_LAP=4), fetches the public Google Flights HTML with essential-cookie consent, parses the ds:1 block, and returns the cheapest options as JSON with book_url and book_label.
Nearby days uses /flightscout/api/calendar with the same encoding, fanning out across the ±3 window and returning a seven-day cheapest-per-day strip. Results are cached for about five minutes (nearby-day cells about an hour). The Worker rate-limits to about 20 searches per hour per IP. GBP, economy, UK locale (hl=en-GB&curr=GBP&gl=gb).
Where it is now
Live since 6 November 2026 at https://leej.uk/flightscout/, with Nearby days (±3) added the same day. Search runs only when you ask; confirm fares on the airline site before you book.