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Posted on May 16, 2023 by Admin
Our 2 million+ members are already familiar with one of Going's favourite flight search engines: Google Flights. We include a Google Flights sample search in nearly every cheap flight alert we send.
Google Flights is one of the most powerful flight search engines on the internet, both easy to use and equipped with a multitude of features to make airfare hunting easier. It's easily the most comprehensive search tool out there for airfare, and while it's not 100% perfect, it's pretty close, especially if you know the inside tips for using it to find the cheapest tickets for your trip.
Hopefully, this guide will help you find even more cheap flights with Google Flights.
Google Flights' pros
It has its advantages and disadvantages, but overall the good outweighs the bad. Here are some advantages of Google Flights:
Cons of Google Flights
Google Flights isn’t perfect. Here’s where it lags a bit behind:
Google Flights searches fares on nearly every airline’s website, as well as the largest online travel agencies like Orbitz and Priceline.
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Getting the most options from Google Flights by setting departure and arrival locations
Select your preferred travel dates and enter where you want to fly from and where you want to travel to on the homepage.
Remember that you can put up to seven airports in each box, separated by commas. If you’re looking for a cheap trip to anywhere Europe, for example, you might put as your destination “LHR, CDG, AMS, CPH, BCN, FCO, MXP” to see where the cheapest flight is from Chicago to either London, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Rome, or Milan.
NYC (New York City) and WAS (Washington DC) both count for three each because NYC = JFK, LGA, EWR and WAS = DCA, IAD, BWI.
Find the cheapest day to fly on Google Flights by selecting dates
When you click the departure date box, prices for the next two months will appear, with the cheapest dates highlighted in green.
Important: Google Flights only takes into account prices in the months you’ve told it to look at. So in the above example, the green dates are the lowest in September and October. However, there could be cheaper dates in future months that Google Flights will only find if you click the right arrow to scroll to later months.
Once you’ve looked at the Google Flights calendar of lowest fares, click on the date you want for your departure, after which you’ll click on the date you’d like to return.
Afterwards, Google Flights gives you a list of possible flights, such as:
Notice that Google Flights lists a few up top that they consider to be the “Best departing flights” taking into account factors like price and routing. It can still be worth taking a look at the “Other departing flights” to see if any of those work better for your schedule.
A +1 next to the arrival time on a Google Flights itinerary means your flight will arrive the next day (or 2 days later if it says +2).
After deciding on a good departure flight, click on it. You’ll then be prompted to choose a corresponding return flight (assuming you’re booking a roundtrip fare) and your screen will look like this:
If you want to go back and change the departure flight, all you do in the above example is click where it says “ORD-VCE Tue, Sep 18” towards the upper left.
If you've searched for a roundtrip itinerary, the price displayed by Google Flights will be the total price.
It's not an online travel agency (OTA); it's a flight search engine. That means you can't book a flight on Google Flights, as Google Flights does not sell flights to consumers. If you select "book with Google", your information will be passed on to the airline or another OTA to book directly.
Once you click your preferred return flight, you’ll be taken to your booking options, like so:
Click to book either through KLM or Delta and you’ll be taken to their checkout page where you’ll enter passenger and payment information.
If you can't book cheap flights through Google Flights ("ghosting"), here's what you should do
The Google Flights app may initially show you a cheap fare, but when you try to book it, the fare either jumps in price or is not available.
We refer to this as “ghosting.”
The price of Google Flights drastically increases at some point in the search process
The only way to get the promised low price with Google Flights is by calling the airline directly
If Google Flights promises you can book a low fare with the airline or online travel agency, but when you click to book, the price jumps on the booking page
In each of these cases, there’s no way to book those specific flights on those specific dates at the original cheap price.
You can check if a ghosting fare can still be booked by following these steps:
Google Flights offers other dates
Try booking a ghosting fare on Priceline using the dates of the ghosting fare
Look at Momondo to see if a ghosting fare can be booked
There is no guarantee that any of these routes will be available; sometimes ghosting fares cannot be booked anywhere.
The map view feature in Google Flights, called Google Explore, is a handy, hidden feature that allows you to see cheap flights across entire countries or regions. However, you need to be on a desktop computer to use it fully.
Start your search as you normally would by entering your departure city and dates, but leave the destination blank. Then click the blue "Search" button to find the cheapest place to go.
Instead of entering specific countries, you can enter entire continents like Europe or Asia.
You should keep in mind that the initial Google Flights map view only shows you fares for the specific dates you entered.
If you have the flexibility and just want to find the cheapest fare anytime, you can click the dates and switch to the “Flexible dates” option like so:
Find your perfect flight with Google Flights by filtering results
One of Google Flights’ most powerful features is the ability to set an array of filters to ensure you only get search results you’re interested in.
Among them are:
Under the date boxes, you'll find these filters:
Google Flights: How to identify basic economy fares
Having selected your flights, you'll see the final price and links to book with the airlines. At the top, beneath the destination and departure cities, you'll see a suitcase icon to indicate your class of travel: economy or basic economy.
You can choose your preferred class if you click that button. A box will open explaining what each fare includes.
Google Flights: Tracking flight prices
Using Google Flights, you can set fare alerts to ensure you don't miss a deal. Simply set your departure and destination cities and dates.
Click on the "Track prices" button so it toggles on and turns blue. If you aren't signed in to Google, you will be prompted to do so.
Once you click the button, you'll see a box at the bottom of the page where you can "View all" to see all the flights you're tracking. You'll be notified whenever the price changes.
The downside of tracking flights with Google Flights is that you may receive a lot of email notifications as flight prices change from day to day. Unfortunately, you cannot set the alert to only notify you when the cost reaches a certain level. Also, you can't set an alert for a general date range or region; you must choose a destination and specify a specific date range.
Google Flights: How to book multi-city tickets
Google Flights makes booking multi-city or open-jaw tickets easy. On the home screen, click the dropdown menu next to "round trip" and select "multi-city."
Now input your dates and travel cities as you usually would. You can add up to five flights.
You may, however, find it cheaper to piece your trip together with separate one-ways if you piece it together. In the case of Paris and Rome, instead of booking a ticket from your home to Paris, Paris to Rome, and Rome back home, you simply book an open-jaw flight from your home to
Paris and back to your home airport from Rome. If you want to save hundreds of dollars, book a separate flight from Paris to Rome with a regional airline.
On Google Flights, how to tell if you've found a good deal
You can now determine if a flight you've found is a good deal with a new feature from Google Flights. For now, it's only available on a few routes, and it appears inconsistently, but once it's fully implemented, it'll make it easy to determine, at a glance, whether the price you're seeing is a good deal based on average prices for your specific dates.
The data shows up in the same spot on the search results page. Take, for example, the deal we shared for $280 roundtrip flights from San Francisco to Mexico City. Google Flights calls this a good deal, but be aware that sometimes it might be a flight you want to avoid based purely on price.
As Google only looks at the past year of data, its perception of a good deal can also be skewed. As an example, Google often said in 2021 that a price was average when it was actually a good deal since it was comparing it to 2020 prices, which were lower than previous years. Compared to 2020 prices, the price looked average, but compared to 2019 prices, it may have been an excellent deal.
The colour-coded bar indicates whether prices are lower than usual (green), average (yellow), or higher than usual (red).
When you click the blue "Details" hyperlink, you'll get more details on the average price range for your dates.
Tips for using Google Flights more effectively
Find the cheapest route between two regions on specific dates by searching multiple airports
By entering up to seven departure and destination airport codes, Google Flights allows you to search multiple airports.
Why would you want to do that? Well, let’s say you want to fly from New York to an unspecified destination in Germany for specific dates in August. All you really know is that you want to spend some time exploring Deutschland. You can input the departure airport codes for both JFK and LaGuardia and then add the destination codes for multiple airports in Germany to easily find which one is the cheapest for your trip.
The results will automatically list the best deal at the top. In this case, it’s JFK to Frankfurt.
If you’re flexible with your travel destination, this is a great feature to experiment with to see which destination cities are the cheapest. It also works if your departure city is flexible. For example, if you live south of Orlando, you could put Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami into the departure fields to find out which airport you should depart from to get the best price.
You can find the cheapest places for flexible dates by using the Explore Map
Say you have a slightly different situation than the one outlined above. You just want to go somewhere, and your dates are pretty open. On the main search page, input your departure airport(s) and leave the destination field empty. Pick some random dates and then click the blue “Search” button.
From there you’ll be shown a map that highlights the cheapest destinations for those dates. But if your dates are wide open, click into the date field and select the button for “Flexible dates.” From there, you can choose a weekend, one week, or two-week trip in a specific month or anytime in the next six months.
In this example, Google Flights pulls the best deals and lists them on the left-hand side, while highlighting them in green on the map for the flexible traveller.
Let’s say you have some time off in August to go wherever you please. You want to fly from Atlanta but you’re really not fussy about where you end up, as long as it’s within budget. Under Flexible Dates you can search for a two-week trip in August.
Google automatically pulls these results, starting within the US.
However, if you want to see results beyond the United States, just zoom out on the map.
If there’s a particular area you want to go to, you can move the map to that area, or search per region (or country). In this example, let’s use “Asia.”
Once the results are loaded, you can use the map to zoom in on a particular area you’re most interested in, like Southeast Asia. Finally, you can adjust the price so that your results fit within your budget. Just slide the blue button left or right and you’ll be able to filter out all the extra noise.
To find the cheapest dates for a specific destination, use the calendar, date grid, and price graph
In Google Flights, you can play around with dates once you've selected a destination to find the cheapest airfare.
As soon as you input your dates, the calendar feature will pop up and show you two months of prices. You can see the cheapest round-trip flight options immediately, and the best deals are highlighted in green. If you click the arrows to the right of the calendar view, you’ll see what’s available in the coming months.
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The calendar defaults to 7-day trips, at the bottom left corner of the calendar you can use the arrows to increase or decrease the duration of your trip. When you select DONE, you’ll be taken to your results. At the top of the results, you’ll see the options listed for Date Grid, Price Graph, and Nearby Airports.
The Date Grid takes you to a grid of the cheapest flight combinations. Anything cheaper than your selected flight is highlighted in green. If you click the arrows at the top of the grid, you’ll see more dates.
The Price Graph works in the same way but shows two months of fares in one easy visual. When you select the shortest bar, you’ll see that if you travel between September 4th-19th, your round-trip flight drops to $674. Again, you can change the dates by clicking the arrows on both sides of the graph.
The Airports feature lets you explore other airports near the one you’ve selected. It’ll show you if there is an airport with a different price, as well as information on how to get to your destination from the airport. (It may not be worth the cheaper price if the airport is much further than your other options.)
Tip #4: See the price info box to confirm you’re getting a good deal
Google Flights has a new info box that will pop up in most search results to let you know whether or not you’re getting a good deal. It looks like this:
These insights are based on fares that Google Flights has tracked in the last 12 months for trips in the same season, of similar length, with the same departure and destination points, class, and airline. Maybe it won’t influence your purchase, but at least you’ll know if you’re overspending, like so:
It doesn't, be that as it may, offer knowledge into when may be a superior opportunity to book. You can utilize the Date Network or Value Diagram for that. What's more, in the event that you realise you have a particular outing to require in the following a while, remember to follow your flight so you get a cost alert in the event that the passage changes.
Google Flights is one of our most suggested flight search destinations; it's not difficult to utilise yet flaunts an adequate number of cutting edge features that you can uncover flights that some other pursuit locales and OTAs (online travel services) such as Orbitz and Expedia can't. Furthermore, with these high level tips, it's considerably simpler to track down the best flight — at the best cost — for your necessities.
Having a fair amount of money returned on flights booked through Google Flights
Since Google Flights is a web index and the flights are really reserved straightforwardly with the carrier, discounts depend on every carrier's strategy.
In the US, the Division of Transportation's "24-hour rule" guarantees that you can drop your trip in no less than 24 hours of ticket buy and have a fair amount of money returned. The standard applies to any flight leaving from the US, insofar as the ticket was reserved direct with the carrier, and it was reserved somewhere around 7 days before takeoff.
Which carriers are recorded on Google Flight?
The vast majority of airlines are listed on Google Flights, including:
Which carriers are not recorded on Google Flights?
A few huge Asian transporters, including Thai Aviation routes and Philippine Carriers are strikingly missing from Google Flights. Moreover, in the US the most ridiculously glaring oversight is Southwest.
Instructions to change your cash or language on Google Flights
In the upper left-hand corner of Google Flights, search for the "burger" — the three even lines to one side of the words "Google Flights."
This opens up a vertical menu on the left-hand side. At the bottom of this, there are options to change the language, currency, or country you use for Google Flights. From here you can also access the Explore map, or view any prices you're tracking (more on that below).
You can also adjust your country, currency, and language at the bottom of the page.
Step-by-step instructions to find trips with lower fossil fuel byproducts on Google Flights
Google Flights presently shows the estimated carbon impression of most flights. For the most part, direct flights have lower fossil fuel byproducts than agendas with associations, yet even inside relentless courses, outflow rates can change via airplane type.
As well as giving the outflow rate for your flight, Google Flights additionally lets you know the typical rate for that course, and assuming that your rate is sequential. Note that the rate likewise considers your charge class; a higher pace of emanations is for the most part credited to business class tickets in light of the fact that the bigger seats mean less individuals on the plane, so eat seat has a bigger portion of the liability.
Five starter master tips from Scott on Google Flights
Try not to place every one of your eggs in Google's bushel. Google Flights is the best spot. to begin your inquiry in light of all the adaptability it permits, however you ought to continuously verify whether costs are considerably lower on other OTAs like Momondo or Kayak.
Continuously look at substitute air terminals. You can undoubtedly do this by contributing up to 7 flight and appearance air terminal codes into the pursuit box. It very well might be fundamentally less expensive to fly out of Chicago rather than Milwaukee, for instance, or to land in Paris rather than Bordeaux.
Continuously utilize the scheduling capability to track down the least expensive days to fly. Ticket costs can be radically unique regardless of whether you change your movement dates by one day.
In the event that you don't know whether you can take a flight, secure the cost by utilizing the 24-hour rule for your potential benefit. Book the arrangement and you can drop in something like 24 hours and return the money in question.
Try not to clear your treats or look undercover. It won't influence the cost (and negative, there's no mystery about the greatest day or time to book flights by the same token).
Step-by-step instructions to utilize Proceeding to find out about Flights together
Each time we send our individuals an arrangement, we incorporate a connection to test search, and the vast majority of the time, it's on Google Flights.
The example search will be pre-finished with the takeoff and appearance air terminals, in addition to channels like explicit carriers, number of stops, and delay times. This makes it simple for you to limit the flights remembered for the arrangement. Frequently, the arrangement is accessible from a few urban communities and many date mixes, so you can refresh the takeoff air terminal and play around with different dates to see what works for you.
Choices to research Flights
While we think Google Flights is the most ideal choice, there are some others that likewise work really hard. We have guides for utilizing them all.
