Google Flights may already be your go-to travel planning app for finding flights. Now there are two new Google search features that make it easier to predict your travel costs before you book. These tools can be useful whether or not you know where you are going.
Explore Destinations By Price
If you use the “Explore” tool on Google Flights, you already know you can see destinations by price after entering your starting airport. Now, you can enter a price ceiling to keep your flight costs below a certain dollar amount. For example, you can enable the filter to only show roundtrip flights under $250.
As usual, you can browse destinations looking at the map or the scroll-down menu. You can continue filtering the options by the airline, flight times and the number of stops.
Compare Average Flight Prices
It’s been possible to compare flight prices by looking at the price graph. Some of the newest flight insights can show you how current prices compare to average prices for the last twelve months. This tool helps you determine if the flight is a good value, average value or is overpriced.
You can also have Google Flights track prices for a specific route. When prices drop, you can receive an alert to buy tickets.
Don’t forget to calculate checked baggage fees into the price. That cheap seat might be a basic economy seat that has baggage and other restrictions. To help prevent you from overlooking this expense, Google Flights has a filter that asks how many carry-ons and checked bags.
Find Hotel Deals Quickly
Google’s other travel planning ambitions focus on finding hotels. New filters include finding hotel deals instead of only searching by the nightly rate. You can also search by amenity types, star ratings and a maximum or minimum price window.
When you find a hotel you like, click on the property name. You will then see the price from the various travel websites to help you pick the best price or scoop up some loyalty points like with the Capital One Venture and Hotels.com partnership.
Summary
These new Google features make finding flights and hotels easier as you can see the best prices all in one place. The next time you are planning a trip, don’t forget to try these new filters.
Credit: Techcrunch
