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Margot Cavin/Travel + Leisure
Before you even think about booking your next trip, you need to start by searching for flights. With so many options and airlines, narrowing down your desired routes can be tricky. This is where search engines like Google Flights come into play by providing a wide range of options—which you can filter by price, stops, times, and other factors—and real-time comparisons. To make the most of this handy search tool, we tapped several experts, including a Google employee, to share their expert insights to help you save.
A main reason why Google Flights is so accessible is its user experience, which is simple, clean, and mirrors their general search product, explains Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights) travel expert Katy Nastro. In other words, "You aren’t bombarded by too many filtering options from the get-go, making getting started with the travel search relatively seamless."
Margot Cavin/Travel + Leisure
This basic, user-friendly tool lets travelers search for round-trip, one-way, or multi-city flights by entering their departure and destination cities along with their desired travel dates. From there, a list of available flights will populate. Alternatively, if you're not tied down to specific dates, users can select travel dates with a calendar view that shows the cheapest days. Similarly, there's also the option to search for flights anywhere in the world.
Looking to score the best deal on airfare? Enter the Explore tool, which lets users search "all kinds of dates and destination combinations on a map," says Kyle Maltz, chief operating officer at Dollar Flight Club. "What's cool is you don't even need to put in a destination and can just openly explore deals leaving your home airport." The same goes for dates: Users can filter by specific dates or choose the "flexible" option. The Explore feature is easily accessible: Click the Explore button to be directed to the Explore map.
"This is probably the most popular feature," says Maltz. Per the pro, "It allows you to look at a calendar that displays pricing for each day for your planned trip, so you can explore alternative departure and return options to find the best pricing." For example, the date grid shows how prices can change even with the slightest adjustments on your departure and/or return dates. As the name suggests, this is shown in an easy-to-read grid format. The price graph, meanwhile, is—you guessed it—shown in the form of a graph and shows how prices can change over several months. You can find these options on the Search page.
To ensure you're making an informed decision, Google Flights offers real-time insights to determine if a fare is lower or higher than usual, as long as the data exists. It'll also tell you how much the least expensive flight options are for similar trips. In some cases, Google Flights will even tell you when the cheapest time to book is based on past data if it's available. (If there's insufficient data for your desired route, you won't see this.)
Flight price alerts give you the option to "monitor specific routes to get notified when they have big price drops," says Maltz. Once you set up price tracking alerts via email, you can visit the Tracked Flights page to monitor prices whenever you'd like—but more on that below.
"In October 2024, we launched a new, money-saving feature on Google Flights called the 'Cheapest' tab,'" says Wishy Arora, group product manager for Google Search. To use this new feature, enter your trip details and tap the "Cheapest" button to display additional flight options with lower prices.
If you've already used Google's standard search engine, you'll find Google Flights a breeze to navigate. "Just as you type in your query into the Google search bar, you start your Google Flights search in a very similar fashion," says Nastro. You can search for flights to and from up to seven airports at a time. Alternatively, if you're flexible on dates or destinations, you can simply enter your departure city to be directed to the Explore map, where you can browse real-time fares to various locations. Also, remember to select the type of trip—round-trip, one-way, or multi-city—along with how many travelers, the fare type, and the dates.
Additionally, as mentioned earlier in this article, you can filter out results based on factors like price, airline, duration, and stops. You may also set a price range to ensure you don't go over budget.
One thing to note: Google Flights is a flight search engine—not an online travel agency—so after you find a flight that works for you, you’ll have to book it directly with the airline or through a third-party booking site.
Setting up price alerts in Google Flights is simple. "After entering your route and travel dates, click the 'Track Prices' button," says Maltz. You’ll be alerted when prices change for your desired flight.
Keep in mind that because Google Flights doesn’t currently have an app, you must be signed into your Google account for the alert to be sent to your email.
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Make the most of Google Flights and its innovative features with these expert tips.
Google Flights features over 300 airline and online travel agency sites, which means you have all options at your fingertips. On the other hand, that might lead to too many choices, which may overwhelm you. However, "One great aspect of Google Flights is the ability to customize your searches to what you are looking for," explains Nastro.
"Two Google Flights search features we love are the ability to search multiple airport combinations in a single search—up to seven departure and arrival airports—and the map view, which provides a clear visual of options you may not have initially considered," says Nastro. She continues, telling Travel + Leisure, "With the multiple airport search functionality, you are presented with more than one routing option, allowing you to see what other options may be available at a better price."
To explore alternate airports and routes on Google Flights, enter multiple airports (separated by commas) in the departure and/or destination fields or use the Explore tool to see flight prices to various destinations on a map.
Booking directly with the airline is recommended for easier changes, cancellations, and rebookings since you won't need to go through any third-party sites, which may have long wait times or limited customer service. Fortunately, "Google Flights' flight results tool always provides a direct booking link and alternative booking options to streamline your booking process," says Maltz.
For optimal savings, utilize the calendar view feature to see if there is a cheaper departure or return date option. The same thing goes for destinations: Use the Anywhere search tool to explore a wide range of affordable travel options and discover budget-friendly destinations you might not have considered.
"Sometimes," says Maltz, "booking two one-way trips can help you save a substantial amount of money." With this in mind, to make the flight search process easier, he advises travelers to use Google Flights to quickly compare options and experiment with different combinations.
"One feature that many people overlook is how to retain filters when navigating between views," says Nastro. For example, after selecting a fare in the map view, you can click through to see all available options for that route. "However," she says, "when you start to filter the results and decide you’d like to go back to the map view, you would lose all of the preferences you just set up, returning to a blank slate." To prevent this, "simply go to the 'Where to' box, type in the region or city again, and you'll return to the map view with your filters still intact."
Many of the options under this tab come with drawbacks, such as long layovers, self-transfer fares (where you book separate flights, often with different airlines, and are responsible for transferring yourself and your baggage—potentially rechecking bags or going through security again), or needing to purchase different legs of the trip through multiple airlines or booking sites.
"Google Flights can be used from anywhere, regardless if you are traveling within or outside the country," says Nastro. "One function of the search engine that makes it universally appealing is that you can reset the currency to whatever your own country is when abroad—no VPN needed."
Read the original article on Travel & Leisure
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