7 Handy Tips when using Google Flights

I often use Google flights ( https://www.google.com/travel/flights) to quickly search options to travel from A to B and sometimes a few other places in between.

If you haven’t used it before it’s a great tool and with a few extra tips and tricks can help you find the right flights at the right price quickly and easily.

Here are seven handy tips and tricks when searching up flight options on Google Flights.

1. If you don’t have to have set dates of travel, use the Date Grid and Price Graph to find the best deals.

If you are planning a holiday in the future and don’t have set dates on when you must leave or return, using the Data Grid is a fantastic way to work out the best options and days of the week to travel. Traditionally for international flights certain days of the week are cheaper but it can also depend on what days of the week different airlines are flying in and out of the preferred destination. Even better, it takes into consideration all your filters so you know you're are looking at the prices for how you want to travel.

The handy Price Graph tab can also show the cheapest days of the week to fly as well.

2. Make sure you use the filters if you want to avoid long layovers or have a particular airline or alliance you want to fly with.

The Filters allow you to really narrow down your options quickly. Don’t want long layovers, apply the “Duration” filter. Want to avoid lots of airport connections, then set the maximum number of “Stops”. Hate early morning flights, then set the “time” filters. Need to fly a particular airline to keep the status credits up for the loyalty program, use the “Airlines” filters.

These are powerful tools to make sure you find the right flight that works for you.

3. Get creative with Open Jaw flights or manually adding additional stopovers.

Sometimes Flying from A to B return is not always the cheapest option. Playing around with multi city flights can work out cheaper and also give you the chance to explore a place you may not have thought of going to.

Say for example you want to fly from Melbourne Australia to Tokyo. Depending on flights it might be cheaper to fly from Melbourne to Tokyo but return from Osaka back to Melbourne.

Understanding which airlines are flying to you end destination can also help with putting together some creative itineraries that can work out cheaper. You might find adding a stop in Singapore (if you choose Singapore Airlines or Scoot) or Hong Kong ( if flying Cathy Pacific) may end up cheaper than trying to fly direct.

4. If you don’t have to fly to a particular city, choose the country as the destination or even the continent.

What if you don’t need to go to a particular city. What if you just want to explore a place. Google Flights allows you to put in a Country i.e. Japan or even a Continent ie. Europe. And can show you flights to lots of different airports to that destination you might never have thought of.

5. Not the right time to buy? Turn on the price tracker to keep an eye out for cheaper prices.

A simple flick of switch on “Track Prices” and you can start getting updates to your email when flight prices change. Great for keeping an eye open for those bargains that pop up.

6. The cheapest flight might not be the cheapest flight.

A word of caution, sometimes the cheapest flight doesn’t always work out the cheapest. Make sure you factor in things like luggage (if you are travelling for two weeks you are probably not going to take a carry on ) and if you have a long flight you may need to buy something to eat and drink.

Flying in to an airport that is a lot further away from your intended destination may end up costing more in land travel costs ( or time).

There are many times when you do all the numbers, full-service airlines that include luggage and meals can work out cheaper than the “low cost” carriers but the time you add all the extras.

Make sure you do all the numbers before jumping in just on the flights of the tickets.

7. It always pays to check the prices directly on the airline website.

Google flights will bring back prices from several online travel reservation providers like Aunt Betty, BYOJet, Expedia, Trip.com as well as the airlines themselves.

While these airline travel reservations can save money, it always pays once you know the flight options to check directly on the airline’s website. It may be a little bit more but if you have options, having booked direct can make it a lot easier with cancelling or changing flights. I have used sites like Expedia before to book flights and haven’t had issues, but I do know that some people have when they need to make changes. Go direct to the airline just takes out the middleman and can make life easier.

I hope these tips make searching for your next holiday a bit easier and a bit of fun as well.