Google Flights

Choosing a flight can be very hectic. Having to check all the airlines individually for the cheapest fare, comparing the prices, no seat, taxes, long stopover times. Worst of all: booking your flight today and then the price drops tomorrow (the horror).

There is a travel myth that states that you find cheap flights on Tuesday. Well, Google Flight debunks that theory.

What is Google Flights?

Google Flight is an online flight booking service which facilitates the purchase of airline tickets through third party suppliers. In 2011, Google bought ITA Software which develops airfare search for airlines and websites such as American Airlines, Expedia etc. Google flights works well on mobile devices with a totally intuitive User Interface.

How to use it:

You can either start by searching for “Flights from Abuja to London” on Google or opening the site directly “https://www.google.com/flights/“.

Map Search

If you don’t have a destination in mind and you have a period or a particular date in mind. All you need to put is your departure destination and the period you want to leave and return.

Click on Popular destinations. It shows you popular destinations and how much return tickets cost in the selected period.

I chose Munich in Germany.

It displays the best flights available for my departure day, which usually is cheap and has a small layover time if it has 1 or More stops.

If you are flexible about your travel dates, the calendar shows you the days with cheapest fair for the period of your expected trip. You can click on any date to see the flights for that day.

After picking the flight, it shows you lots of information about the flight as well as the airplane:- WiFi in the airplane, In-seat & USB power, how long the flight is, the expected layover time if it has 1 stop or more.

It also sorts the return flight according to the cheapest and best flights.

After selecting your return flight. It shows you available options for booking. It shows how your airfare compares to the same flight on same airfare booking sites such as Priceline, Cheap0air. It also converts the price of the ticket if its in another currency to your currency.

You can save your flights if you are not ready to book immediately or if you want to be alert whenever the price of the flight changes. I saved a flight for Abuja to London as at Tuesday, the airfare was $1,309 on Wednesday I got an alert that the airfare was now $1,214 (it had gone down about $77). On Friday, the airfare was now $1,145 (it had gone down $164) for the same flight.

You can sort the search results according to the number of stops.

According to price,

According to the airline and its alliances, if you are registered with any particular airline. Tip: Register with airlines to save up miles which can be used to get return tickets (see Pre-Travel Tips).

According to a particular departure and arrival time,

According to connecting flights and duration of the flight,

You can change the currency of the flights.

It also shows you money saving tips.

Cons of Using Google Flights

Sadly, you can’t book flights on Google Flight. It helps you find cheap flights but you have to book on the airline’s website. The prices are usually the same so you have nothing to worry about.

Thanks for reading!

Simi