For many people, traveling around the world remains nothing but a distant dream, which is about to change by the advent of Google Flights. This is obviously because traveling usually leaves a huge dent on people’s bank accounts. While technology is slowly revolutionizing the world of travel by becoming a gateway to incredibly affordable offers for wannabe tourists — many are still left in the dark about how taking advantage of this ongoing revolution can turn what used to be impossible, now possible.
By trying a few simple hacks, you are just a click away from that dream vacation yours. Believe it or not, you can now book flights at incredibly low prices — so low that they sometimes look like they’re too good to be true.
Frequent travelers usually have no problems spotting the cheapest deal for a flight they hope to book — but those who are not as knowledgeable in this field are usually the ones who end up unnecessarily emptying their pockets for a flight that could have cost a lot less.
Thanks to websites and apps like AirBnB, people around the world now have access to deals that are a lot cheaper than they would have been about a decade ago. Several apps and websites have also started to offer different ways for travelers to dodge expensive airfares — but one particular service has so much to offer that it’s actually a whole lot better than having a human travel agent.
And we’re talking about tech giant, Google Flights.
Like all other flight-booking services, this Google service can help you get all the basics done — finding the cheapest flight, booking it, and then all you have to do is start traveling.
But what sets it apart from many of its competitors are these extremely amazing and helpful features that many people probably don’t know about.
Here why Google Flights is so much better than your average travel agent:
1. When you wanna go but you don’t know where to go, Google Flights can help…
If this hasn’t happened to you yet, believe it or not, it will happen. There’s going to be that point in your life when you’re definitely sure you want to go, but you just don’t know where to go.
Luckily for you, Google understands this can and does happen, so they made it so much easier for you. The moment you open the it Google Flights automatically shows you a map of what is basically the whole world with little dots, each representing a potential destination. From there, you can simply tap anywhere on the map that looks like a good destination for you, and then Google Flights will help you do the rest.
2. When you’re feeling lucky…
If you are still hesitant and remain undecided over where on the map it is that you’d like your pointer finger to drop on, Google has an answer for that, too. In case you’re feeling lucky and you want to leave your fate to Google’s genuinely genius algorithms — just tell Google Flight Search Engine, “I’m feeling lucky” by simply hitting the button that says exactly just that— and boom, you got yourself a destination.
Take note, however, that Google Flight Tracker is no fortune teller and the choices it presents you with whenever you’re feeling lucky are based entirely on what’s popular, as well as your search history.
3. It only takes a part of a second for Google ITA Matrix to find the best deal that there is out there for you.
Back in the day, asking your travel agent to find you the cheapest flight possible takes a whole lot of both courage and patience. Courage to admit that you are on a tight budget but want to go on a holiday anyway, and the patience to wait as your agent tries his best to look for the best deal he can find for you.
Cheap flights google search has the ability to save you from all that drama by offering you the convenience to simply choose the destination of your choice and then let it do the rest — without practically any wait time as it only takes a few seconds to load the page that shows you every option you can get.
The cheapest airfare it finds is then highlighted and placed on top of everything else.
And if you look closely on the top part of the page, right across the price of the cheapest flight it found is what Google calls a ‘Date tip’. This ‘Date tip’ elaborates on how much money you can save if you pick specific dates for your departure to as well as arrival from your destination. It doesn’t get any easier than that.
Most sites will let you see which dates have cheaper flights but Google Flights’ intelligent system is actually able to tell you the best way you can save by picking the best dates and then doing all the calculation for you.
It’s like having a travel agent who has really good eyes and Math skills.
4. When you’re trying to decided the date to go on a cheap international flight
Planning a vacation can be extremely stressful especially when you’re trying to figure out which is the best date to go on leave while making sure that it’s also the best date to travel budget-wise. Google Flights know you all too well and went ahead and made sure that there’s a calendar view that shows you the best dates with the cheapest airfares.
5. When you really want to save money but the dates with cheap flights don’t match your itinerary 🙁
This is a common experience for everyone trying to save as much as they can when trying to book a flight: you look for the cheapest airfare, but the date that shows the cheapest price tag isn’t the same date as the day you hope to travel. It can be dizzying, trying to find the beast airfare deal you can get on the dates that will actually work around your schedule.
To save you from that nauseous experience, Google Flights offers you the choice to view the airfare prices in three options: in calendar view, flexible dates view, and price graph view.
In the price graph view (as seen in the image below), users can view the airfare fees in a bar graph presentation. By this feature Google Flights actually makes it so much easier for users to spot which days have the actual lowest airfares.
6. And then there’s the sad part of traveling…
As much as traveling is usually about fun, excitement, and adventures, the reality is that there will always be times when something beyond your control happens and you will have to live with the inconvenience that the situation brings. Thankfully, Google Flights has the courtesy to inform you of any inconvenience that you might face during the flight you have chosen. This kind service warns you if the flight you’ve chosen is usually delayed, and it even tells you how long delay is for, as seen in the image below.
7. How to avoid a legroom fight
It’s not uncommon for passengers to fight over legroom during flights. In fact, there were at least two instances of passengers fighting over legroom that made it to the world news in the U.S. alone.
Now we don’t want to be one of those people who cause flight delays by fighting over that minuscule space inside the aircraft, so to avoid these uncomfortable confrontations — we turn to Google Flights.
Believe it or not, Google’s awesome flight-booking service tells you how much legroom to expect in the flight you booked — informing you of how much space exactly it is that you should anticipate. This means you can always change the flight if you believe the amount of legroom you are given will bring trouble in the air (literally).
What’s more is Google Flights also warns you if that flight you booked is actually an overnight flight.
By now, you’re probably convinced that Google Flights can do a lot more than your average human travel agent can do. So the next time you decide to plan that dream getaway of yours, you can just let Google Flights do all the thinking for you.