There are plenty of search engines out there to find a cheap Flight. Maybe you’ve got a favorite tool like Skyscanner, or Hopper, or an online travel agency like Priceline or Expedia. But one option is better than all the rest: Google Flights.

Yes, that’s right, the search engine behemoth is also king when it comes to finding cheap flights. It’s incredibly powerful, with tons of features that will help you zero in on the best price. And it’s got a bevy of filters you can use to narrow down to the flights you really want … and avoid the ones you don’t. Plus, you can use this tool to search almost all carriers and book directly with an airline rather than through a third party – something that’s more important than ever right now.

We’ll show you some of the best tips and tricks to book your next cheap flight at the lowest price. When you’re done, you’ll never use another flight search engine again.

The 411 on Google Flights

There’s a reason why we recommend Google Flights above all others. It’s the tool we personally use to find cheap domestic and international flights.

But let’s back up a bit and explain the basics. And the most important basic of all? Google Flights isn’t like Expedia, Kayak, Orbitz, Skyscanner, or other popular travel search engines.

Those platforms are online travel agencies or OTAs, from which you actually buy your flight, hotel, cruise, or other travel. Google Flights, on the other hand, is a global distribution platform where airlines directly publish their airfare. And you’ll also find some fares on some major OTAs like Expedia or Priceline, too. It’s really a one-stop shop for flights.

Pros of Google Flights

Because Google Flights isn’t an OTA like the others, this actually gives Google some serious advantages over any other flight search engine:

·        You can almost always book directly with the airline. Cutting out the middle man when booking flights is more important than ever – you’d much rather deal with an airline agent than shoddy customer service from a small online travel agency.

·        No flight search engine does a better job showing months’ worth of flights to help you find the cheapest flights possible, period. It will even alert you if shifting your travel dates by just a day or two could save you.

·        Google Flights allows you to search from multiple airports at the same time to find the cheapest airport to depart from – and that’s key when it comes to saving on international travel.

·        As you’ll see, you have unparalleled features and functions to filter your search results to find the flights you want – and avoid the flights you don’t want.

Cons of Google Flights

That said, Google Flights isn’t perfect. It’s close, but there are a few drawbacks:

·        Because Google Flights relies mostly on listing airfare directly from the airlines, you can sometimes find cheaper fares through OTAs who cut deals with carriers to list deeply discounted flights.

·        Google is constantly updating the inventory of available flights, but we occasionally see some issues with outdated pricing. That means you might see a price on Google Flights only to click through and find a higher price tag.

·        While most airlines are available via Google Flights, a handful do not list their fares there (or other search engines).

Still, Google Flights is head and shoulders better than the alternatives. At the very least, Google Flights is your first stop to find cheap flights. From there, you can always check to see whether you can find a better deal on the flights you find through OTAs like Momondo or Skyscanner – and decide whether those additional savings are worth it. Also Read: Motorcycle Injury Attorney in USA 2022 Guide

How to Get Started with Google Flights

This is the easy part. Start your flight search by visiting Google Flights at https://www.google.com/flights.

While there is no shortage of other Google apps, there is no Google Flights app. You can use it with a smartphone web browser, but we think using the desktop version is best.

The homepage is user-friendly and provides immediate updates based on selections you may make regarding your departure location, travel destination, dates, and more.
  

·        The Menu in the top left corner (three dashes), gives you shortcuts to Search Flights, Google Flights Explore, and Tracked Prices (where you can track price changes for a flight – more on this later). You can also access your trip information for upcoming travel with Google Trips, and even search for hotels. Finally, this is also where you can change your country, language, and currency – a valuable feature depending on where you’re searching.

·        Flight Search is where you can enter information to start your flight search in the middle of the homepage. You can provide any of the following:

·        Departure Airport: You can choose up to five departing locations to find cheap flights

·        Destination: You can choose up to five locations to fly to

·        Dates of Travel

·        Type of Trip: Round trip, One-way, or Multi-City

·        Numbers of Passengers: Adults, children, infants in seats, and infants in laps

·        Airline Class: Economy, Premium Economy, Business Class & First Class. Note that there is not a “Basic Economy” filter to remove those pesky fares from your results. But you can use this trick to remove most Basic Economy fares from your search.

Filter Google Flights Results to Fit Your Travel Needs

Sometimes, not just any flight will do. We’ve all got wants and needs, after all.

Looking to take a first-class flight for your honeymoon? Only want to depart after a certain time? Only want to fly a specific airline? Don’t worry, Google Flights has taken these things into consideration.

Here are all of the things you can filter when searching to find a specific flight:

·        Bags: This feature is a way to filter out many budget carriers and other basic economy fares. Add a carry-on bag to make sure your Basic Economy fares that allow free carry-on bags (like Delta or American Airlines) will still be included.

·        Stops: You can select how many stops you’re willing to make during your trip – or simply make sure your results are only nonstop flights.

·        Airlines: Whether you have airline loyalty or are looking to finally take a flight on a five-star airline, you can use the Airline filter to only see flights for specific airlines or airline alliances like SkyTeam, Star Alliance, and Oneworld.

·        Price: On a budget? You can easily set the maximum price you’re willing to pay for a flight.

·        Times: Need to depart in the morning? Or know you must arrive by a certain time? Use this filter to identify flights that fit the departure and arrival times that work for you.

·        Connecting Airports: Force Google to only display certain results based on which airports you connect through. You can also filter out flights with extra-long layovers. 

·        More: Here you can set the maximum length you’re willing to be on a plane, and also decide whether you want to see trips that are booked with separate tickets (for example, fly out with one airline and return on another).

Google Flights even displays the price differences between basic economy fares (which often come without free assignment and, in the case of United, without a carry-on bag), economy fares, extra legroom economy seats like Delta Comfort Plus, and sometimes even first class fares. Also Read: The 30 Most Expensive Cars in the World
  

Unlike an online travel agency or third-party search engine like Kayak, Expedia, or Priceline, you can book directly with the airline through Google Flights. On the final page, you’ll be directed to book on the airline’s website – along with other sites that may have fares available.

Just click “Select,” and Google will take you straight to the deal you just found through Google Flights to book directly with your airline. It’s that simple.

How to Find the Cheapest Days to Travel

Finding the cheapest flights is all about flexibility. And part of Google Flights’ power is how easy it makes it to find the cheapest days to travel.

It starts with Google Flights’ calendar view, which breaks down the cost of the flights you’re looking at over two months. Dates in green immediately tell you that they’re your best bet to fly for cheap.

But Google has recently upped its game even more to help you find the cheapest dates to fly. If changing your travel dates by just a date or two would save you big bucks, Google Flights will give you a quick pop-up alert to let you know.

Click the date grid, and Google will pull up a handy, color-coded chart showing you the cheapest dates to fly based on departure and return dates. Sometimes, shifting your dates by a day or two can save you $20 or more. And sometimes those savings are in the hundreds of dollars.

You can also display this in a price graph, which allows you to tailor your search based on how many days you want your stay to be. No other flight search engine gives you more information to save on airfare than Google Flights.

What’s a Good Flight Deal? Google Flights Will Tell You

“Is this a good deal? Am I getting ripped off?”

That’s the constant question for almost every traveler on the hunt for a cheap flight. Unless you spend all day, every day looking for airfare, it’s tough to know whether the flight you’ve found is actually saving you money. Google Flights has the answer.

One of our absolute favorite features of this search engine is that Google actually crunches the numbers to let you know how the flight price you’ve found compares to the average. Think about it: Google has millions upon millions of individual fares in its database.

Just scroll down after selecting a flight and you’ll see a handy chart showing how your price stacks up to the norm. In this case, this flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) is substantially cheaper than the average.

Of course, that’s not always the case. In addition to tipping you off when changing your dates can save you a small (or large) fortune, Google Flights will also show you when flights are abnormally expensive. Clearly, you should never pay this much for a flight from Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) to Hong Kong (HKG).

How to Find the Cheapest Getaway with Google Flights Explore

Not sure where you want to go? Do you want to travel somewhere in June but need ideas? Google Flights Explore is a great way to find the cheapest options when you don’t care where you’re heading.

Here are some tips on how to use Google Flights Explore:

·        Enter your departure city and a destination as specific (or as broad) as you want to check out. California, the United States, Europe, South America – they’ll all work.

·        Select the dates you’d like to travel or select flexible date guidelines. Play around with travel dates, as pricing can greatly fluctuate – and keep it broad if you can. If you’ve got specific dates, you can search as far out as you want. If your travel schedule is more broad, you can only search for flights in the next six months.

·        Move the map around to see new destinations and prices.

·        Once you find a destination that you’d like to explore further, click the name of the city, then “View Flights” and it will populate the search information with flight options and additional details.

·        If you see a fare in the color green throughout Google Flights, know that this is showing you the lowest airfare for the dates or duration you are seeking.

What Airlines Are Not on Google Flights?

The power of Google Flights is that almost every airline is at your fingertips as you search for cheap flights.

But not all airlines are on Google Flights. A handful of airlines choose not to list their flights through Google – or other search engines, for that matter.

Most notably, Southwest Airlines is not available through Google Flights. Nor is budget carrier Allegiant, or popular Asian carriers including Air China, China Eastern, and Thai Airways. So if you’re looking for a cheap flight within the U.S., you’ll want to search both airlines’ sites individually to see how their fares compare. The same is true if you’re looking for flights to Hawaii, Mexico, or the Caribbean with Southwest.

Top 5 Tips To Get the Most out of Google Flights

Whew, are you getting all this?

There’s a lot of ground to cover when it comes to using Google Flights. Thankfully, Google Flights is pretty intuitive: Use it a few times to find a cheap deal, and you’ll find yourself quickly getting the hang of it.

But some features stand out more than others. So here are five of our top tips to get the absolute most out of Google Flights.

1.      Filter for stops to get the flights you want: We’d all rather fly nonstop, right? Google Flights makes it easy to search for only nonstop flights. Just keep in mind that you can often save some money on one-stop flights on other airlines – especially if you’re traveling internationally.

2.     Search for the airlines you want: Are you a diehard Delta fan? Only want to fly United or other Star Alliance carriers? Google Flights has an easy-to-use way to narrow down your results to certain airlines – airline alliances.

3.     Search multiple cities to find better deals: Google’s city search and the ability to search multiple departure and destination cities at once is unparalleled. It’s especially useful if you’re looking for international flights and aren’t sure whether it will be cheaper to fly into Rome (FCO) or maybe head straight for Venice (VCE) or Milan (MXP). Or maybe you’re leaving for Asia from the West Coast and want the best deal, whether that means departing from San Francisco (SFO), San Diego (SAN), Los Angeles (LAX), or Seattle (SEA).

4.    Use Google Flights Explore: This is perfect for those times when you just need a cheap getaway to anywhere. Some other flight search engines have similar features, but none are as powerful. Just start with your departing airport, and type in a country, or region, or just scroll across the map to start scouring for deals.

5.     Use Price Alerts: The flexibility to hop on a great deal to fly anywhere at any time for a bargain is great, and Google Flights will help you find those flights. But the ability to track pricing and get price alerts when the price changes on the specific dates you need to fly is another reason we adore this search platform. No other flight search engine does it better. Also Read: The 20 Most Expensive Alcoholic Drinks In the World

Google Flights Frequently Asked Questions

What is Google Flights?

Google Flights is a flight metasearch engine that uses a global distribution system to tap into the flight inventory offered by almost every airline in the world. It is not an OTA (online travel agency) like Priceline or Orbitz.

How does Google Flights work?

Google Flights is a metasearch engine tool that pulls up flight schedules, itineraries, and seats to show you flight prices on hundreds of thousands of tickets – including taxes. Google Flights also pulls in information on additional fees to avoid basic economy as well as baggage fees.

Once you find the flight you want, you can book directly with the airline – or through an online travel agency. Just like Google itself, Google Flights is purely a search tool: you’re not actually booking flights through Google.

How reliable is Google Flights?

Extremely reliable.

Google Flights gets its data directly from each airline (or online travel agency) database. Most times you find an error, it’s because of an error on the airline’s end – not Google’s. That said, because flight prices are changing constantly, sometimes Google Flights will erroneously display an out-of-date price that has since changed due to cached data. This typically gets fixed within minutes, if not seconds.

Because you generally wind up booking with the airline, there’s no need to worry about getting the flight you just paid for.

How do I cancel a ticket booked through Google Flights?

Because you’re not actually booking through Google Flights, there’s no need to go through Google if you need to change or cancel your tickets.

Instead, you’ll have to go through however you booked: your airline or the online travel agency you used. Google Flights can’t help you.

Keep in mind that the U.S. Department of Transportation has a “24-hour rule” that requires airlines to give you a full refund if you cancel your flight with