Departures & availability

A departure is a specific date a trip runs. A availability rule is a recurring pattern (e.g. "every Tuesday from March to October"). Together they control which dates a customer can pick at checkout.

Quick mental model

You sell	Use this
Open-date trips ("any time you like")	Just the trip's availability window in the Trip Builder.
Fixed dates ("Mar 5, Apr 10, May 8")	Departures — one row per date.
Recurring schedules ("every Tue + Thu")	Availability rules — one rule produces many dates.
Capped seasonal trips ("only 60 spots in 2026")	Departures with capacity, plus the trip's overall capacity.

Departures list

Open Yatra → Departures.

Columns: trip, departure date, capacity, booked, available, status (active / archived / cancelled).

Filters: by trip, by date range, by status. Search by trip title.

Click a row to open the departure detail / edit form.

Add a departure

Click + Add New at the top of the Departures list, or + Add Departure from a trip's Availability section.

Fields:

Field	What it does
Trip	The trip this departure belongs to.
Start date	The departure date.
End date	Optional — for multi-day trips, the return.
Capacity	Max travelers across all bookings for this departure.
Status	Active, Archived, Cancelled.
Notes	Internal notes (only admin sees).

When a departure is full (booked equals capacity), the catalog hides it from the date picker automatically.

Availability rules (recurring)

For trips that run on a schedule (every Tue + Thu, 1st of every month), use rules instead of creating each date by hand.

Open Yatra → Trips → Availability.

A rule has:

• Trip — the trip it applies to.
• Start date — when the rule kicks in.
• End date — when the rule stops.
• Days of week — Mon / Tue / Wed / Thu / Fri / Sat / Sun (multi-select).
• Capacity — per generated departure.
• Skip dates — exclude blackout dates (holidays, off-season).

When you save the rule, Yatra generates departures behind the scenes for each matching date in the window.

Capacity rules

Three layers of capacity:

1. Per-booking — set as min / max travelers per booking on the trip's Availability & Booking section.
2. Per-departure — set on the individual departure row.
3. Per-trip total — optional cap across all bookings ever (for limited-edition expeditions).

When a customer picks a date, the booking flow checks all three. The first to be exhausted shows "Sold out" or "Date no longer available".

Booking session

When a customer is in checkout, Yatra creates a temporary booking session. The session "holds" the seats for a few minutes (configurable in Settings → Booking) so two parallel bookings can't oversell the same seat.

If the customer abandons checkout, the seats release after the session expires.

PRORecover abandoned bookings

When the session expires (or the customer leaves before paying), Yatra Pro can email them a personalized recovery link. Three-step sequence (1 hour / 1 day / 3 days), per-trip exclusions, and reporting on recovered revenue.

Unlock abandoned recovery →

Departure detail page

Click any row in the Departures list. The detail page shows:

• Capacity progress bar (booked / total).
• Booking list — every booking that picked this departure.
• Quick actions: Edit, Archive, Cancel, Duplicate.

Cancel a departure

Sometimes you have to cancel a departure (weather, low signups, instructor unavailable):

1. Open the departure → click Cancel.
2. The system marks it cancelled and prompts you to email affected customers.
3. Refund related bookings via Yatra → Bookings → click each booking → Refund.

(Refunds go through the gateway dashboard first, then mark refunded in Yatra. See Payments for the full refund workflow.)

Traveler categories

Departures inherit traveler-category pricing from the trip. To configure adult / child / infant / senior labels and pricing, see Yatra → Traveler Categories.

Travelers list

Open Yatra → Travelers for a roster-style view of every traveler across all bookings. Useful for departure manifests:

• Filter by trip and date.
• Export the manifest (CSV).
• Click a traveler row for their full booking + emergency contact info.

Departure status flow

Active → Archived  (manually, after past)
Active → Cancelled (manually, with email + refund step)
Archived stays archived until you delete it

Cancelled departures stay in the database for reporting. Archived departures keep their bookings visible but hide from the date picker.

Tips

• Archive past departures monthly. A long active list slows down the date picker.
• Use availability rules for "almost every weekday" with skip dates for holidays — much easier than 250 individual departures.
• Cap each departure separately. Even if your trip has unlimited overall capacity, set per-departure caps to avoid overbooking small groups.
• Cancel-with-notice. Always pair "cancel departure" with a clear customer email — Yatra prompts you, but the email content is yours to write.

Where to go next

• Bookings & customers — what happens after a customer picks a date.
• Payments — money flow.
• Pro modules — abandoned recovery, Google Calendar, dynamic pricing.