Google Flights to Find Cheap Flights in 2023?

Posted on 28th Sep, 2021 by Malvika Varma , Updated 4 weeks ago

Hello GlobeTrotter! Travel – is the most exquisite feeling for passionate travelers. The thought of hopping on a plane and jetting off to the dream destination itself elevates the mood. But that happiness instantly shatters once we sit down to book the flights. For some, flight booking is the most anxiety-inducing experience of planning the trip. Google Flights has emerged as a savior for many users as it saves time, stress, and sometimes some hard-earned money! In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through the process of how to use Google Flights to find cheap flights like a pro, including some bonus tips. Also lean about Google flights search anywhere feature.

More on Google flights below..

But first, let’s answer a quick question. What factor bothers us the most while planning a trip? You guessed it right; it is flight pricing. Affordable airfare is exactly what we look for while booking the airline ticket. As a traveler, who would mind having to pay as little as possible for every flight? Flights cost a fortune! Flight pricing is tough to predict, and many people can relate to it. Finalizing a flight that doesn’t come with hidden baggage fees can be daunting and downright exhausting. And yes, it is rocket science for a few!

With the quest to find the perfect cheap flight, we spend hours slogging through different websites and search engines. Each website has a unique feature that we do not want to miss. While one website displays fares for an entire month, the other booking engine shows attractive offers and deals. To book cheap flights we want both of these features and many more. Google Flights is indeed an incredible meta search engine that is loaded with all the sought-after features. 

So let us get started!

The 411 On Google Flights

According to a recent survey, Google Flights has been used nearly three times more than plenty of other online travel agencies (OTAs). It indicates it is appealing to the users in a way no other flight search engine on the internet. 

First, Google Flights is not a platform or OTA where you can actually buy your flight, hotel, cruise, or any other travel directly. It is a platform where different airlines and OTAs publish the airfare followed by the link to make the purchase. With a handful of travel-related features, Google Flights is much like Google itself. It is a robust website that helps search, plan, and book flight tickets, saving you a ton of time with its valuable features. Its user-friendly, simple, and polished interface truly justifies the phrase ‘the less is more’.

In 2010, Google announced an agreement to acquire a flight information software company named ITA Softwares and launched it in 2011. The rest is history. Since then, Google Flights has taken the travel industry by storm. This global distribution platform has become massively popular among users to check out the airfares even using standard language. Google Flights is a powerful tool to search for the cheapest airfare or other flight booking criteria as it allows for complex queries and returns with a wide range of customized results.  With Google Flights search, users get access to a customizable list of flights so that they can fly on a budget to anywhere in the world.

Merits Of Using Google Flights In 2023

Google Flights has some notable advantages over other flight engines. We have listed a few of them below:

• Super fast: Within lighting seconds, Google Flights presents fares for upcoming months. With a handful of information in a blink of an eye, Google Flights is the one-stop solution to booking flights.
• Direct booking: Google Flights enables you to book tickets directly with the airlines. It eliminates any third party or some small online travel agency. You can directly get in touch with customer executives of the airlines to get all the travel-related details.
• Search based on map: One of the unique features of Google Flights is the Explore option which lets you browse through the entire map to check out the cheapest flight to fly from your airport. 
• The calendar based airfare view: If you are looking for cheap flights, Google Flights is definitely a tool meant for smart travelers. It allows the user to get an overview of flight prices of the entire month! Another great feature is that Google Flights gives alerts if shifting your travel dates by a day or two could save you a few bucks. This helps the user to find the best day to book flights for.
• Multiple origins and destination search: You can easily find multi-city google flights and even multiple airports to find the cheapest flight. In fact, it can show search results from seven origins to seven destinations at the airport. By booking a flight that departs from a comparatively cheaper airport, you can save a significant amount of money from the travel budget. 
• Distinct features: With a multitude of functionalities and features to filter the search results, Google Flights makes airfare hunting easier. Google Flights enables the users to finalize the best affordable flight for their travel plan easily.

Drawbacks of Google Flights

While Google Flights offers amazing features, there are few points that need to be improved. 

• Google Flights relies on airfares listed directly from the airlines. So, users may miss flight deals that OTAs such as Superfares cut with airline carriers. The discounted or cheap flights offered by Superfares or other OTAs are not visible while booking through Google Flights.
• Google Flights occasionally displays the outdated pricing of flights, although it is frequently updated. So, at times, it is possible that you may end up finding a higher price tag once you click through.
• A few of the airlines are currently not providing their airfares on the Google Flights search engine, and so, some of the deals are not available on Google Flights. To make sure that you do not miss exclusive deals such as flights under $100 or last minute flights by Superfares, do visit its website.

“Nonetheless, Google Flights is way ahead of its competitors to find cheap flights. The competitive landscape of flight search has been transformed since Google Flights ventured into the travel industry. “

After this brief, let us get straight to the ‘how to’ part.

How to use Google Flights to find cheap flights in 2023?

Start your search to book air tickets by visiting the official site of Google Flights. You can visit the website from your desktop or smartphone browser as there is no app for Google Flights. After clicking on the URL, you will be redirected to the landing page. The Google Flights homepage is a fairly simple interface. You can find the basic search options at the screen. The user-friendliness and effectiveness of using Google Flights is much appreciated. It makes the overall flight search process very hassle-free.

The Menu option (three dashes) in the top left corner gives the following shortcuts.

• Travel-search for flights, hotels, and more.
• Explore-this option shows the world map along with travel options. You can fill the travel details accordingly. We will discuss more about this feature later in this blog post.
• Things To Do– shows top insights and places to visit in a particular country/city.
• Flights– we will discuss more on this later.
• Hotels– insert the city and number of occupants; display the list of hotels available in the city and price.
• Vacation Rentals– fill in the details to get the list with the price. Tracked Flight Prices- shows the history of tracked flights.

Lastly, this is also where the user can change the country, language, and currency – a crucial feature.

Google Flights Search Tutorial in 2023

Now let us understand how to use Google Flights to find cheap flights like a pro. To start your flight search, enter the information, such as where you want to fly from and where you want to fly with the preferred travel dates in the middle of the homepage. You can provide any of the following:

• Departure Airport: You can choose up to seven departing to find cheap flights by clicking on the ‘+’ option to select more than one departure airport. This option allows us to see the multi city google flights in one glance.
• Destination: Similarly, you can choose up to seven locations to fly to by clicking on the ‘+’ option. This option helps in multi city google flights search very easily. This allows you to get details of multiple entries.
• Dates of Travel: Choose the Departure and Arrival dates by clicking the calendar to select your flight dates. You will see the lowest total price to fly for each day, and if you are flexible with travel dates, you can choose the dates with the cheapest airfare. In this calendar view, the dates in green are the cheapest, which helps you to identify the best deal.
• Type of Trip: Select the type of trip- Round trip, One way, or Multi-City.
• Numbers of Passengers: Adults, children, infants in seats, and infants in laps.
• Airline Class: Choose the airline class Economy, Premium Economy, Business Class and First Class.

Goggle Flights Advance Filters

Google Flights has some of the powerful filters which allow the user to narrow down the search results. Here are all the filters you can use while searching for a specific flight.

• Stops: If you want to reach your destination directly, select the option of ‘nonstop flights’. Or, if you’re willing to make stops during your trip – select the number of stops.
• Airlines: Using the airline filter, you can choose a specific airline. This feature is particularly useful if you have airline loyalty and you want to avail that offer. So if you want to fly with a specific airline, you’d only check off that airline. Likewise if you want to avoid a specific set of airlines, you could do that too.
• Bags: Using this feature, you can see flight prices that include the cost of carry-on bags. This allows us to compare prices so that there are no surprise fees at the airport. The Checked Bag option allows Google Flights to include the checked baggage fee in the search results to display the all-in pricing.
• Price: Budget travelers can utilize this Google Flights feature to easily set the maximum price of an air ticket you’re willing to pay for a flight.
• Times: With the help of this filter, you can filter to identify the arrival and departure times according to your schedule. You can choose a morning flight, late-night flight and so on which suits you the best.
• Connecting Airports: This shows the connecting airports so that you can plan your layover stay.
• Duration: Using this feature, you can set the maximum time you’re willing to be on a plane.

Suggested Read: Cheapest Days to Fly in 2023

How To Find Cheapest Days To Fly In 2023

• The calendar view- This allows the user to select the cheapest day to fly, as discussed above. Moreover, Google Flights gives quick pop-up alerts if by shifting your travel dates to a few days could save a few bucks.
• The Date-Grid view- Click the date grid, and Google Flights displays an easy-to-understand, color-coded chart that shows the cheapest dates to fly according to departure and return dates.

• Price Graph View: This feature helps to keep track of airfare for the week or month.

After setting the filters as per your requirements, you get the most suitable list of flights.

You can directly book the ticket with the airline as at the final page, Google Flights directs you to the airline website.

How To Track Flight Prices On Google Flights?

As you scroll through the page after selecting a flight, it will show the chart in the color-coded bar with the usual price in green color, the average price in yellow, or higher than usual airfare by red color. So, Google Flights shows when flights are abnormally expensive so that you can shift your travel dates if you are flexible with dates but have a restricted budget.

Another feature which ensures that you can monitor the changes to the airfare by turning on the toggle button of ‘Track prices’. To get alerts, the user must have a Gmail account to receive e-mails from Google Flights to keep you updated with fluctuating airfare right in your inbox.

Now click on the ‘Select’ option to be redirected to the airline website

Get the payment done, and ta..da..you just booked your flight using Google Flights.

It would be an understatement to say Google Flights is a meta search engine. It is a tech giant and is way ahead of the rest of its competitors due to its unique features and user-friendly interface. 

How to change or cancel your flight?

At times we need to change or cancel the flights. To do so, you can contact the airlines or travel agency portal directly to assist you in the cancellation process. The cancellation policy of each airline varies. Google Flights itself do not provide any assistance in changes or cancellations of flights. The email received after flight booking contains all the necessary information about the flight as well as airlines or travel portal.

How to check Carbon Emissions on Google Flights?

Google Flights also showcases the carbon emission of each flight. This recently added feature gives a facility for opting for sustainable travel choices. Due to this recent feature added by Google Flights, traveler can consider their environmental footprints. Here is a step-wise process to find.

• Open Google Flights.
• Search for any flight you wish to travel by filling in the required details.
• Click the down arrow on the right. You will find the carbon emission estimate for each leg of the trip.

To sort the flights based on carbon emission, from the Sort by option on the right, select CO2 emissions. This will display the result from lower to higher emissions. It is one of the many Google Flights updates.

How carbon emissions are estimated? 

The carbon emissions are measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, which means the carbon dioxide and other equivalent greenhouse gases emitted by the aircraft. Google uses data provided by third parties such as airlines. Factors that impact the carbon emissions are destination and origin of flight, aircraft model and its configuration, altitude, and airplane speed. Google keeps revising the carbon emission estimates over time. On Google Flights search anywhere, flights are categorized as higher, typical, lower, or unknown emissions. Such Google Flights updates are a great initiative to make a conscious decision regarding our carbon footprints while traveling.

Not sure where to go? Google Flights Explore is totally for you

Google Flights Explore is the best available search option when you want to travel but are unsure of the destination and on a tight budget.

Here are the steps on how to use Google Flights Explore:

• Enter the travel dates or select flexible date guidelines. You can change the travel dates to see the fluctuating pricing. If you are not specific about the travel dates, you can search for flights in the next six months and finalize the travel date with cheap flights. Furthermore, you can move the world map around to view several new destinations along with their prices.
• Finalize a destination that you would like to explore further. Click on the name of the city, and then on ‘View Flights’. It will display the flight options and additional details. The lowest airfare days are in the color green.

Conclusion

Google Flights dominates the SERPs. Google Flights is an excellent flight tool for travelers due to its distinct features. As you know how to use Google Flights to find cheap flights like a pro, all you have to do pack your bags and save some bucks for the next trip. This all about google flights search anywhere.

Do let us know your experience with Google Flights in the comment section below.

Want to know the secret story behind Flights 828? Here are some interesting travel blogs which blow your mind Flight 828 A True Story and Delta Flight Attendant Zip Ties Hijacker. Share your thoughts about such unusual airplane incidents in the comment section below. To stay informed about the aviation news, subscribe to the Superfares newsletter.

Till then, happy flight booking!

Disclaimer:

Google will no longer be booking flights directly now. For travelers outside the USA, the feature will be disabled somewhere around September 2022. And for users in the USA, the feature will no longer be in use post March 2023. However, please note that Google Flights will continue to help travelers browse the best flight options, leading them to an online agency or airline from where flights can be booked.

About Malvika | View Posts

Malvika Varma is an experienced content marketer and blogger who immensely believes in the wonders that words can do. She assists companies by crafting valuable content for clients. She empowers the digital marketing campaigns to build an effective connection with readers and capture conversions. An engineer by choice and a philomath at heart, Malvika spends most of her time reading, traveling, and catching up with friends and family. When she is not doing all those things, you can find her decorating her home and workspace.