Finding and booking the best flight you can is truly a skill. You may be looking for the cheapest option or the one with the least number of layovers. You can use many search engines to help narrow down your search. However, one of the best ones I recommend is Google Flights.
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What is Google Flights?
Google Flights is a powerful search engine that helps you narrow down the flights you want to book and the ones you want to avoid. It has many filter options to make your search specific and personal. Almost every airline lists its fares directly on the platform, allowing you to sort through flight schedules and prices, including taxes.
How do I use Google Flights?
It’s pretty simple to use Google Flights as it has purposely been created to be super user-friendly. Here’s how it works.
- Go to google.com/flights
- The first tap will allow you to adjust whether you want a one-way or round trip, how many people you’re buying tickets for, and how you want to fly (first class, economy, etc.).
- You then can adjust where you’re taking off from and where your destination is, as well as the dates you wish to fly.
- A calendar will appear for your when choosing the dates, and each date will list the price of flights for that day in case you quickly want to see the cheapest option.
- Once you’ve picked your dates, you’ll be led to the following page showing you a list of Departing Flights. You can tap the arrow on the right-hand side for the flight you want and click Select flight.
- Note at the top of the page that Google Flights gives you lots of other filters to refine your search. You can change anything from the amount of bags you have to what airlines you want to avoid, and the results and price totals will change based on your choices.
- Select your Returning flight by tapping one of the down arrows and clicking Select flight.
- Once you choose your Returning flight, you’ll be led to a page with a list of third-party options that you can book your flight through. It will list the options by price, starting with the cheapest option at the top. When you choose an option, Google Flights will bring you directly to that third party’s website, and you will complete your booking there.
How do I get the cheapest airfare using Google Flights?
Google Flights has lots of secret tricks you can use to make sure you get the cheapest flights as well.
1. Use the Date Grid
When booking a flight, Google Flights offers consumers a date grid. This grid will list out a ton of dates that you can book your flight on, and each date will have all the prices listed for that flight. The cheapest ones will be highlighted in green for you so that you’ll clearly be able to spot and pick those if you wish.
2. Use the Price Graph
You can also use the Google Flights Price Graph to help narrow your search. Price Graph shows you all the prices for flights in a graph format, and you can adjust the amount of days you want your trip to be depending on how big your budget is.
3. Determine if the flight is a good deal
Another great feature of Google Flights is that it will tell you if the flight you’re trying to book is actually a good deal or if you should keep looking elsewhere. Once you have selected your departing and returning flights, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and check out that chart Google Flights gives you. It tells you how good of a deal you’re getting, with the green section being the cheapest and the red section being the most expensive. If you feel you’re being ripped off, you’ll have a chance to go back and change your options before booking.
4. Use the Explore tab to pick your destination
If you know you want to go on vacation somewhere but can’t decide where to go, the Google Flights Explore tab can assist you.
The Explore tab gives you the option to be much more general in your search because it has a map feature that will highlight some of the best places to travel to in the world. When you’re picking your destination, you can type in something as general as ‘Florida’, and the map will show various Florida spots as well as how much it costs to fly there.
And the feature even has a filters tab so that you can search by price, interests, times, and more.
5. Use the Track prices option
If you want to always remain up-to-date on the latest price changes to ensure that you get the cheapest flight possible, you can do so by turning on the Track Prices option on Google Flights. Once this option is toggled on, you will receive emails on when flight prices change for whatever travel dates you select. You can toggle on the Any Dates option as well if you want to receive updates on when prices are low in general for your departure and destination areas.
6. (NEW) Using trend data to book a cheap flight
Google flights recently unveiled a new feature that uses trend data to track the best time to buy a flight.
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Are there any downsides to using Google Flights?
Although Google Flights is a fantastic service, it still has some drawbacks. One of the main ones is that because it mostly relies on prices being listed directly from airlines, sometimes you might be able to find something cheaper with an online travel agency as they cut deals with carriers.
Another drawback is that sometimes Google Flights has outdated pricing since they are constantly updating their flight inventory. You may end up finding out that flights are listed at higher prices once you get to the final booking stages, although you can always cancel and go through a different agency before you confirm your booking.
What other ways can I make sure I book the best flight?
There are tons of tools that travelers can use to help make their trips as seamless as possible such as boarding and air traffic control apps. When you have the right tools and know how to use them, you’ll find yourself getting to be first in line for all the cheapest and most comfortable flights before anyone can get their hands on them. We’ve covered some of the best travel tools you can use when planning your trip, and you can check them out here.
What’s your experience been like using Google Flights? We’d love to hear from you.
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