basically looking for help with a formula that would say something like:

 

if{itinerary_status} = "Cancelled" then 1 else 0

 

i cannot get the syntax right!!! any help would be greatly appeciated...

Then insert a summary function "Count" on your report footer for that field.

 

But if you want to display other status also then you might have to group it based on status and then use summary count function on group footer.

 

Hope this helps.