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Whether you’re planning flights for the holidays, looking at next year’s summer vacation plans or are scheduling a business trip, check out Google Flights, the newest site to search for airfares!
Launched yesterday, Google Flights is now part of Google’s immense search engine, allowing you to easily search for flights that best suit your needs. To check it out, go to google.com/flights, or from a Google search page, choose “Flights” from the left sidebar (if that option doesn’t appear on your sidebar, press “More” and it should appear).
When the page appears, you will see search boxes at the top of the page that allow you to choose your departure and destination cities. The “From” box may very well be filled in with your closest major airport. Yes, Google knows where you are. You can type a destination or click on the map to search for flights.
A very cool feature of this site is how you can refine your search criteria. You can select airlines, how many stops, duration of the flight, price limits and frequent flyer plans.
Let’s say you’ve taken a vow never to fly on We Guarantee to Lose Your Luggage Airways, no matter how cheap it is. But every time you’re suckered in by their low, low prices. Google Flights allows you to exclude WGTLYL Airways from your search.
When you get the results, which is pretty much instantly, you can see the flights in a list. Clicking on the headers at the top of the list puts the flights in order according to that selection. Clicking on Round Trip shows you the flights in order of price, with the lowest being at the top.
The absolutely coolest feature is the graph that shows you the flight results based upon time and price. Click on the box next to the Duration box to access the graph. You may think price matters most, but when you see this graph, you can balance the value of your time vs. the cost of the flight.
You can slide the time and cost arrows to focus on exactly what you want, though I don’t know why you wouldn’t just focus on the lower left corner. If you’ve got a hankering for the longest flight possible at the highest price you can pay for a commercial flight, well you can find that too!
I checked flights from Philadelphia to Miami in December. The shortest and cheapest flight was American Airlines at $389 in three hours. The longest and most expensive flight was Continental Airlines, changing planes in New York, for $1624. Which one should I choose?
Another handy feature is the ability to see how prices of flights compare on certain dates. By clicking the calendar button, you can see a graph showing you how prices compare on other days of the week. You can use the sliders to adjust the dates to your liking. If your travel days are flexible, this can be a huge time saver.
Have a bit of wanderlust? You can search by just entering your departure city, the top price you will spend and the maximum time you want to travel. For example, if you want to travel next weekend, have $200 to spend on airfare and want to get somewhere in under three hours, where can you go? I just checked and a trip to Atlanta next weekend would meet those criteria. Hmm…
Once you have found your best flight, you can buy your tickets by clicking on the link which takes you to the airline’s website. Or you could try to save even more money using Mr. Rebates!
Google Flights was just launched yesterday, so there are some limitations with using the site. The site is US only for now and cannot be used on an iPhone or iPad. But if you’re looking to save time and money when booking your plane trips, check out Google Flights!
Here’s an informative video from Google that will explain even more about this handy new search tool:
Are you planning a trip that involves airline travel? Have you checked out Google Flights? Let us know in the Comments section below!
* Image by Luis Argerich
So, from what i understood this tool will help you to compare the prices, distances and to find the most convenient route for you?
Hi Radu, Absolutely. This search tool has even more features I didn’t discuss in the article, such as the ability to search for flights based upon cities where you want to connect. Let’s say you’re flying from New York City to Los Angeles for a family wedding and you want to meet up in St. Louis with your Aunt Millie who also wants to go to the wedding. You could search for NY to LA flights that connect in St. Louis. Very cool.
Radu, thanks for your visit and comment. I hope you enjoy using Google Flights! 🙂
Just saw this on Google+ this morning and was curious about how they were going to differentiate themselves from all the other travel sights. I hadn’t really dove into it yet, so thanks for the overview — quite helpful!
Definitely seems much faster and easier to customize than other travel websites, which is super nice. Will have to test it out soon!
Hi Brittany, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Both the speed and customization of searches seem to differentiate Google Flights from other travel sights. If you’re planning a trip, it’s definitely worth checking out.
Thanks so much, Brittany, for stopping by and leaving a comment! 🙂
It is definitely intriguing. I am quite curious- looks like it could be very useful. Now if only it could help me not hate flying….
Hello Jack, yes, this is very useful site, but it probably won’t help you like flying. I have seen apps that say that they will help people overcome a fear of flying, but never a hatred of flying. I will let you know if I ever find an app that succeeds at that!
Thanks so much, Jack, for your visit and awesome comment! 🙂
Will this be available for iphone and ipad in the near future? I would love this as an app!
Hi Fran, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I love your idea. In fact when I was writing this article, I considered what a great app this would be. The site is only a day old. I imagine Google will introduce a Google Flights app at some point soon.
Thanks so much, Fran, for stopping by The Wonder of Tech and leaving an awesome comment! 🙂
You’re too fast! Great to see you’re keeping up with these latest stuff. Just day before, I think, I saw this reported. And today a detailed review on Wonder of Tech. Awesome!
Flight search is really cool – I am sure, slowly it’ll have hotel + car search on it too.
The pic on the top is little scary with all its color and this being the Sept 11th wknd. Just sayin’
Hi iRewardChart, Yes, this site is brand spankin’ new. It’s a very exciting new service from Google so I just couldn’t wait to share it with readers. If I think tech will be useful and/or fun to readers, I like to write about it here. New tech, classic tech or somewhere in between, I try to cover it. Never a dull moment in the tech world!
Great idea for expansion of this service. I hope Google does expand this with the amazing search features it offers with Google Flights. A one-stop shopping travel search site from Google would give the existing sites a lot of competition.
Sorry that the picture was a bit scary. Believe it or not, searching for airplane pictures was a challenge, especially this week. I avoided any pictures of planes with buildings or people. I found a great picture of a plane emerging from the clouds, but the airline was Lufthansa and Google Flights only covers US flights. This picture was supposed to be airplane and sunset, but perhaps the colors are a bit too vivid.
Thanks so much, iRewardChart, for another brilliant comment and your awesome tweets! 🙂
Too bad, international flights are not available, specially to/from Asia
Hi Jodie, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I agree. International flights would be a fantastic expansion for Google Flights. I think they are wise to load the site with amazing features, launch it in a limited market for a while, and then expand it. With all of the search options this service offers, a worldwide initial launch might have been too daunting.
I would be shocked if international expansion were not in Google’s plans for Flight Search.
Thanks, Jodie, for visiting The Wonder of Tech and leaving your great comment! 🙂
Carolyn, aloha. This looks like great fun. Look forward to playing with it as I will be taking a trip to the Mainland a little bit later this year.
Carolyn, I definitely have to share this new tool with my friends who love to travel.
Thx so much for introducing me to this resource. Until my next lesson, aloha. Janet
Aloha Janet, I checked when I was researching this article and Hawaii is definitely covered by Google Flights, even though it isn’t shown on the map. This site is a lot of fun to play with and may even give you some travel ideas.
One of the features I didn’t mention in the article is when you enter your departure city, blue dots appear on the map. You hover your cursor over the dots and the lowest price for flying there shows up. Very inspirational!
I hope you have a great time planning your trip to the Mainland. Thanks for visiting, commenting and tweeting about this article! 🙂
Thanks, Carolyn, appreciate the helpful overview. You made me curious and I went to google flights to check out European destinations – no go, as yet unavailable. Do you know whether / when google flights will go international?
Recently discovered your blog, great advice and wonderfully explained – thanks.
Have a lovely day, warmest greetings from Switzerland,
Barbara
Hi Barbara, Yes, I should really bold the part about Google Flights being US only in the article. I predict that Google will expand this amazing service to cover international flights at some point when they have made sure everything is working properly. I’m glad Google loaded this service with features and launched it slowly. Better than launching it widely with just a few features, don’t you think?
I understand your frustration though. I only moved back to the US from England last year (after living there 3 1/2 years), so I know what it’s like to get excited about tech only to discover that it’s not available outside the US.
Thanks so much, Barbara, for your visit, wonderful comment and helpful tweet. And congratulations on your Versatile Blogger Award! 🙂
Hi, Carolyn, thanks 😉
You are absolutely right about the US launch of google flights. Step by step: a car company would not launch a new car with two wheels only either (maybe a little bit far fetched!).
And I do not mind waiting for the European launch, my next holiday will be a drive to Southern Tuscany in Italy by car!
Have a good day, Barbara
This is one of the informative video from Google and it will explain you a lot. I would like to say thanks for sharing your post on here 🙂
Hi Kavya, Yes, Google does a great job with their videos and this one is especially helpful. I’m very glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Great article Carolyn! It certainly will be interesting to see how Google will continue to build its place in the travel world. Their recent acquisition of Zagat definitely will help widen their local footprint. Thanks for sharing a very complete summary of their offering.
Hi Sue, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, this is true. I think expansion into other areas of travel and restaurant searches with their Zagat acquisition is very likely. I look forward to seeing what Google has in store next!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving an awesome comment, Sue! 🙂
Hmmm … just gave it a trial run. Not yet sold on it, but will keep tinkering with it. I use several other internet flight search sites when booking travel, so I will add this one to the mix for now. Do you know if it allows one to set “alerts” for flight price thresh holds like some other search sites I use? That is key for me.
Hi Carol, I think it’s a great idea for you to add Google Flights to your list of travel sites. There isn’t an alert feature yet, but what a great idea for expansion! 🙂
Wow, Google is amazing! I would love to use it, although I’m probably not going to leave for another vacation in a while 🙂
But, I’ll be testing it to see how it works though, and I can’t wait for the international version (where I can book flights from Norway as well).
Thanks a lot for sharing this.
Jens
This is a really Good news. But right now it shows only about USA flights 🙂 ..
Hi Suresh, Yes, I hope that Google Flights expands to cover international flights very soon. The service is still in its infancy, but as it matures, Google will likely increase its coverage and features.
Nice one! Google is taking another level again! Now that more and more people are having their vacation more often, I guess this is indeed a brilliant strategy for Google! I’ll check this out! Thanks for the info.