Book a Flight

Book a selected flight by submitting passenger details. PayVessel reserves the seats with the airline and returns a booking ID and your internal reference. After booking, collect payment from your customer and then call Issue Ticket to issue the final e-ticket and PNR.

How it works

Call Select a Flight to lock in the price and get a fresh flightKey.
POST passenger details to this endpoint.
Receive a PayVessel reference and a bookingId — save both.
Collect payment from your customer.
Call Issue Ticket with the bookingId to complete the ticket.

Usage

curl -X POST https://api.payvessel.com/pms/api/external/request/flights/book/ \
  -H "api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "api-secret: YOUR_API_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "flightKey": "a1b2c3d4e5f6...",
    "contactEmail": "traveller@example.com",
    "contactPhone": "08031234567",
    "passengers": [
      {
        "firstName": "Amina",
        "lastName": "Ibrahim",
        "title": "Mrs",
        "dateOfBirth": "1988-03-22",
        "gender": "Female",
        "passengerType": "Adult",
        "nationality": "NG",
        "passportNumber": "A12345678",
        "passportExpiryDate": "2030-03-22",
        "email": "amina.ibrahim@example.com",
        "phoneNumber": "08031234567"
      }
    ]
  }'

Request body

Field	Type	Required	Description
`flightKey`	string	Yes	`flightKey` from Select a Flight
`contactEmail`	string	Yes	Primary contact email for booking notifications
`contactPhone`	string	Yes	Primary contact phone number
`passengers`	array	Yes	At least one passenger object (see below)

Passenger object

Field	Type	Required	Description
`firstName`	string	Yes	Passenger first name (as on ID)
`lastName`	string	Yes	Passenger last name (as on ID)
`title`	string	Yes	`Mr`, `Mrs`, `Ms`, `Dr`, or `Prof`
`dateOfBirth`	date	Yes	`YYYY-MM-DD`
`gender`	string	Yes	`Male` or `Female`
`passengerType`	string	Yes	`Adult`, `Child`, or `Infant`
`nationality`	string	Yes	ISO 3-letter country code (e.g. `NGA`)
`passportNumber`	string	No	Required for international flights
`passportExpiryDate`	date	No	Required for international flights (`YYYY-MM-DD`)
`email`	string	No	Passenger email
`phoneNumber`	string	No	Passenger phone number

Response

Field	Type	Description
`status`	boolean	`true` on success
`message`	string	Human-readable message
`data.reference`	string	PayVessel booking reference (e.g. `FLT-A1B2C3D4E5F6`)
`data.booking.bookingId`	string	Booking ID — required for Issue Ticket
`data.booking.status`	string	Booking status (`BOOKED`)

{
  "status": true,
  "message": "Flight booked successfully",
  "data": {
    "reference": "FLT-A1B2C3D4E5F6",
    "booking": {
      "bookingId": "BK-20260820-98765",
      "status": "BOOKED",
      "airline": "Arik Air",
      "flightNumber": "W3 204",
      "origin": "LOS",
      "destination": "ABV",
      "departureTime": "2026-08-20T06:30:00",
      "passengers": [
        {
          "firstName": "Amina",
          "lastName": "Ibrahim",
          "passengerType": "Adult"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Save the reference and booking.bookingId immediately — you will need bookingId to issue the ticket.

API Reference

Full request/response details and Try it

Getting started

Use cases

API Basics

Accept Payment

Transfers

Wallets

Virtual Accounts

Issuing

Identity Verification

Value Added Services

Flight Booking

Webhook

How it works

Usage

Request body

Passenger object

Response

API Reference

​How it works

​Usage

​Request body

​Passenger object

​Response

API Reference

How it works

Usage

Request body

Passenger object

Response