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Google's New Flight Search Tool Helps You Find The Best Price

This article is more than 9 years old.

Google Flights has been revamped this week and it is the fastest flight price search website that I have used so far. Like many other travel websites,  Google Flights will show you a range of fares and flight options as you select the destinations and the dates. Fortunately, Google Flights has several unique features that alleviates the pain points of finding the best flight.

Google Flights has a calendar feature that lets you scroll through every month to see the lowest fare highlighted every day. There is a bar graph below the calendar that shows how the prices fluctuate based on the season, holidays or other events. If you are not satisfied with the prices that are found, Google Flights will give you tips on how to find a better deal. For example, Google will show you how to save money by using a nearby airport or flexible date.

What if you have vacation time coming up and don’t know where to go? Google Flights will suggest popular destinations when you select your starting point and vacation dates. You can even select whole regions as a destination if you do not know where to go specifically. For example, you can search for “flights to Africa” or "flights to western Europe." After you input that query, Google will show you a map with a list of relevant destinations, flight prices and photos of tourist attractions there.

Google even implemented its signature "I'm Feeling Lucky" button in Google Flights, which will pick a random place based on popular destinations and your search history. “Our research shows more than half of searchers don’t know where they’re going to travel when they sit down to plan,” said Google Flights product manager Eric Zimmerman in a blog post.

Google Flights lets you filter your flight searches based on the number of stops, the price, the frequent flyer program, the flight times and duration. You can choose the number of stops for your itinerary from non-stop up to two stops. The price filter lets you select up to how much you are willing to spend on a flight. There is a frequent flyer filter that shows just the results for airlines that belong to Oneworld, SkyTeam or Star Alliance. The time filter lets you determine the time range for your outbound and return flights. And the duration filter lets you select the highest number of hours that you want to spend on a plane. The top results in Google Flights uses an algorithm called “best flights” that will show you the flights that are likely the best trade off between price and convenience.

In 2010, Google acquired a flight information software company called ITA Software for $700 million in cash. There were antitrust concerns at the time of the acquisition because ITA licensed its technology for travel booking services like Kayak.com, Microsoft Bing and websites powered by individual airlines. The Justice Department approved of Google's acquisition of ITA in April 2011 under the conditions that Google continues to license the travel technology to other companies.

Expedia , one of Google Flights’ largest rivals, has made two of the largest travel-related deals this year. In January, Expedia bought Travelocity for $280 million in cash. And then acquired Orbitz for $1.3 billion one month later. Aside from Travelocity and Orbitz, Expedia controls brands like like CheapTickets.com, HotelClub.com, Hotels.com, eLong , Trivago, CarRentals.com, Venere.com, Egencia and Hotwire. Priceline Group — which owns Priceline.com, Booking.com, Kayak and OpenTable — competes against Expedia and Google Flights. Some of the largest travel startups that are rapidly growing in the travel space include Hipmunk, Room77 and HotelTonight.

During an earnings call, Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that the travel market is valued at $1.3 trillion and that they are “only a small player.” Even though Expedia is one of the largest travel brands, bookings through that website account for about 4% of travel-related spending. This means that the travel industry is still ripe for disruption and could be a major opportunity for Google Flights.

Do you plan to use the new version of Google Flights? Let us know in the comments section below!