serpapi
[Google Flights API] Sporadic missing results
A customer reported that the Google Flights API was not returning results for a valid search query. I was able to reproduce the issue initially, but have not been able to replicate it since. All examples came from different proxy providers.
Opening this issue to track any future occurrences and gather additional context if the problem reappears.
Additional Examples:
Even thought this returning empty results issue didn't persist for very long time. I have to add "no_cache = false" parameter to get a response with flights. And way we can difference a real no result and this transient issue. So that I can know when should I retry the request with no_cache parameter. Both returning as 200 doesn't make sense to me and will confusing people
Another search with empty flights vs able to get results from google flights
https://serpapi.com/searches/68190a56c83b3f07f1ce70a0/inspect
https://www.google.com/travel/flights/search?tfs=CBwQAhoeEgoyMDI1LTA5LTAzagcIARIDTEVCcgcIARIDQkZEQAFIAXABggELCP___________wGYAQI&tfu=EgYIABABGAA
Hi @claire-hl, I'm currently able to reproduce this issue. Going to increase the priority of this issue.
Additional examples:
EDIT: This appears to be working as expected again, but I'm leaving it queued as it's popped up multiple times today.
Another user reported sporadic empty results. They specifically mentioned this happened to them for searches with multiple destination airports. However, their examples worked on retry, and I was unable to replicate it. It may be a coincidence that this specifically happened to them for searches with multiple destinations.
Intercom | Inspect 1 | Inspect 2
The customer who reported this provided more examples. In this case, the results are still empty when retrying with no_cache=true.
Another customer reported this: Intercom Inspect 1 | Inspect 2 | Inspect 3 | Inspect 4| Inspect 5 | Inspect 6 | Inspect 7 | Inspect 8 | Inspect 9 | Inspect 10 | Inspect 11 | Inspect 12 | Inspect 13
Earlier, when I was benchmarking this, I noticed that some proxy providers were returning about 2.7% empty responses. However, everything seems fine now. I'll wait for further reports before running another round of benchmarks.
Another customer report:
@Ovi - note that on the first two searches, there's no 'Proxy Provider' information.