Flight-Price-Tracker

A web application to track and compare flight prices, with automated email and SMS notifications when prices drop below your target threshold.

Features

• Flight Search: Search for flights by origin, destination, and dates using Amadeus API
• Airport Autocomplete: Search airports by code, city, state, or country
• Complete Email Notification System:
  • Secure email verification with SendGrid
  • Price drop alerts when flights fall below your threshold
  • Alert activation confirmation emails
  • Alert deleted confirmation emails
  • Alert expired notifications
• Complete SMS Notification System:
  • Phone verification with 6-digit codes via Twilio
  • Price drop SMS alerts
  • Alert activation confirmation SMS
  • Alert deleted confirmation SMS
  • Alert expired SMS notifications
• Flexible Alert Options: Create alerts with email only, phone only, or both
• Smart Notifications: Only notifies when prices drop even lower than previous notifications
• Automated Price Monitoring: Background script checks prices every 6 hours
• Unsubscribe System: Easy one-click unsubscribe from price alerts with confirmation
• Trip Types: Support for both one-way and round-trip flights
• Responsive Design: Modern gradient theme with clean UI across all pages and emails

Tech Stack

• Backend: Flask (Python)
• Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Database: MySQL
• APIs:
  • Amadeus Flight Offers API (flight search and pricing)
  • SendGrid API (email notifications and verification)
  • Twilio API (SMS notifications and verification)
• Notifications: Email and SMS alerts with automated price monitoring

Current Status

✅ Email notification system is 100% complete! Including:

• Email verification system
• Price drop notifications
• Alert activated confirmations
• Alert deleted confirmations
• Alert expired notifications

✅ SMS notification system is 100% complete! Including:

• Phone verification with 6-digit codes
• Price drop SMS alerts
• Alert activated confirmations
• Alert deleted confirmations
• Alert expired SMS notifications

✅ Automated price checker running every 6 hours

✅ Alerts page updated - Users can now choose email only, phone only, or both for notifications

TODO / Priorities

High Priority

• ✅ All high priority tasks completed!

Medium Priority

• ✅ All medium priority tasks completed!

Low Priority

• ✅ All low priority tasks completed!

Setup

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/Flight-Price-Tracker.git
cd Flight-Price-Tracker

2. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Set up Amadeus API

• Create a free account at https://developers.amadeus.com/register
• Create a new app in your Amadeus dashboard
• Get your API Key and API Secret (use Test environment)

4. Set up SendGrid API

• Create a free account at https://sendgrid.com
• Verify a sender email address in SendGrid settings
• Create an API key with full Mail Send permissions

5. Set up Twilio API

• Create a free account at https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio
• Get your Account SID and Auth Token from the Twilio console
• Get a Twilio phone number (free with trial account)
• Important: For trial accounts, verify your phone number in Twilio console to receive SMS

6. Set up MySQL Database

• Install MySQL if not already installed
• Create a database named flight_tracker
• Run the database initialization:

  python flight_price_tracker/src/core/db.py

7. Configure Environment Variables

Create a .env file in flight_price_tracker/ directory:

# Amadeus API
AMADEUS_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
AMADEUS_API_SECRET=your_api_secret_here

# SendGrid Email
SENDGRID_API_KEY=your_sendgrid_api_key
SENDER_EMAIL=your_verified_email@example.com
BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000

# MySQL Database
MYSQL_HOST=localhost
MYSQL_PORT=3306
MYSQL_USER=root
MYSQL_PASSWORD=your_mysql_password
MYSQL_DATABASE=flight_tracker

# Twilio SMS
TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=your_twilio_sid
TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=your_twilio_token
TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER=your_twilio_number

# Flask
FLASK_SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key_here

8. macOS Users Only

Install SSL certificates for Python:

/Applications/Python\ 3.12/Install\ Certificates.command

(Adjust Python version to match your installation)

9. Run the application

python flight_price_tracker/src/web/app.py

10. Run the price checker (for automated notifications)

In a separate terminal:

python flight_price_tracker/src/core/price_checker.py

11. Navigate to the app

Open your browser and go to http://localhost:5000

How It Works

1. User creates a price alert on the /alerts page with email, phone, or both
2. System sends verification:
   • Email: Unique verification link via SendGrid
   • Phone: 6-digit code via Twilio SMS
3. User verifies their contact method(s) to activate the alert
4. Price checker script runs every 6 hours checking all active alerts
5. When price drops below threshold:
   • System sends email and/or SMS notification with flight details
   • Updates threshold to new lower price (only notifies on further drops)
6. Alert auto-deletes when departure date passes (with notification)
7. User can unsubscribe anytime via link in notifications

Important Notes

⚠️ Gmail Delivery Issue

IMPORTANT: Emails sent to Gmail addresses currently do not work because the app does not have a custom domain. Gmail's spam filters block emails from non-domain senders via SendGrid.

Workarounds for testing:

• Use a non-Gmail email address (Yahoo, Outlook, etc.)
• Check SendGrid activity logs to confirm emails are being sent
• Production deployment with a custom domain will resolve this issue

⚠️ Twilio Trial Account Limitations

IMPORTANT: SMS notifications are currently limited due to using a free Twilio trial account:

• Message length restrictions: Long messages are truncated or fail to send
• Verified numbers only: Trial accounts can only send SMS to phone numbers verified in the Twilio console
• Current implementation: SMS alerts are shortened to work within trial limits (no detailed flight info or full URLs)
• Temporary solution: Full SMS functionality with links and detailed information will be available after upgrading Twilio account or deploying to production with a domain

For full SMS functionality, either:

• Upgrade your Twilio account (usually comes with free credit)
• Deploy to production with a custom domain and upgraded account

Email Verification Links

When testing locally, if clicking the verification link in the email doesn't work, try manually changing the URL from http://localhost:5000 to http://127.0.0.1:5000 in your browser. This resolves some browser caching issues during development.

API Limits

• Amadeus API: Free Test environment provides 2,000 API calls/month with real flight data
• SendGrid: Free tier allows 100 emails/day
• Twilio: Trial account has message length limits and can only send to verified numbers

Future Plans

• Acquire a custom domain for production deployment (needed for Gmail delivery and full SMS functionality)
• Set up a live server running 24/7 for continuous price monitoring
• Upgrade Twilio account for full SMS functionality without length restrictions

Database Schema

The price_alerts table includes:

• Flight details (origin, destination, dates, trip type)
• Contact info (email, phone)
• Price threshold
• Verification status (email_verified, phone_verified)
• Verification token for security
• Timestamps (created_at, last_checked, token_created_at)

Troubleshooting

SSL Certificate Errors (macOS)

• Run the certificate installation command from setup step 7

Email not sending

• Verify SendGrid API key is correct
• Check that sender email is verified in SendGrid dashboard
• Check Flask terminal for error messages

Database connection errors

• Ensure MySQL is running
• Verify credentials in .env file
• Check that database flight_tracker exists

Verification link doesn't work

• Try using 127.0.0.1:5000 instead of localhost:5000
• Hard refresh the browser (Cmd+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+R)

Contributing

This is a personal project but suggestions and bug reports are welcome!

License

MIT License - Feel free to use and modify for your own projects.