How FormFlights works
Transparency builds trust. Here's exactly what the engine does with every search.
1. True-cost engine
We convert drive time to the airport into a dollar value at your hourly rate (default $75/hr) and split it across travelers — driving is a shared cost. We add it to the per-person flight price to get a real per-person cost. If the trip is reimbursed, we adjust accordingly.
2. Blended decision score
Every option is scored on five sub-dimensions: value (per-person savings vs median, dampened for group size), price, convenience (stops, layovers, drive distance, departure time), time (total travel burden), and airline quality. Weights shift based on mode — business mode boosts convenience and reliability; "fully covered" trips boost quality.
3. Airline quality layer
Each airline gets a quality score and a plain-English summary. Your tolerance for ultra-low-cost carriers filters or down-weights them. If something is excluded, we tell you why.
4. Flexible-date intelligence
Instead of "cheapest day," we evaluate full date combinations and rank them by overall experience. Thu→Sun and Fri→Mon become first-class comparisons.
5. Group dynamics
Hard nos (banned airlines, low tolerance) win. Soft preferences average. Your recommendation card explains whose preference shifted the result.
6. Real bookable inventory
v1 runs on a realistic mock provider so you can see the engine work end-to-end. Wiring in real Duffel inventory is a single-file swap once you provide an API token.