• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Ask Scott
Travel Codex

Travel Codex

Your Resource for Better Travel

  • Subscribe
  • Credit Cards
  • Reviews
  • Guides & Tips
  • Award Travel

Using Google Flights to Search for Airfares FAST!

by Mike
Last updated March 28, 2018

Google Flights has generally been panned by the frequent flyer community for being too focused on commodity flights where price and shortest duration trump all else. However, it’s blazing fast speed makes it a great tool to start your mileage run planning.

There are some some good tools hidden behind the seemingly featureless interface. First is the stock standard searching. Start by specifying your departure and destination. Immediately (and I mean immediately!)  Google Flights presents flight options and pricing for a default set of dates. You can then change the departure and arrival dates below the map to your specific travel plans.

google-flights-searchbox

The data is sorted by time and price and defaults to showing “Efficient Flights”, hiding longer and more expensive flights.

google-flights-results

You can then filter your results to show all results, or use the Limits icon to drag the price and duration slider to limit the number of flights shown.

google-flights-filter

While this is helpful for the average flyer, the more interesting tools are found by changing the calendar and destination fields. First, you can limit your search to your preferred alliance: OneWorld, SkyTeam, or Star Alliance, or a specific airline.

google-flights-alliance

The calendar icon (next to the return date field) isn’t simply a date picker that only pops up a dumb calendar, but instead this calendar is alive with near real time pricing updates. Use the slider to adjust your dates or hover over the bars looking for the shortest bar indicating a lower price on another date. (Since most days were the same in my example below, I highlighted a more expensive trip the week before to show the difference.)

google-flights-calendar

Free Wi-Fi Coming Your American Airline Flight
Trending
Free Wi-Fi Coming Your American Airline Flight

Lastly, leave your destination field blank and see what destinations you can fly to. A great way to start a mileage run planning session before heading to ITA to build a multi-segment run.

google-flights-open-destination

While not feature complete, with the recent addition of international destinations this tool is quickly becoming more powerful. I’ll be watching to see what features they release next. Hopefully they’ll include some of ITA’s routing language directly into the product to have the benefits of speed and flexibility in crafting routes for mileage runs.

  • 2shares
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Read This Next

  • Interesting Speculation about the Future of Google and ITA Matrix
    Interesting Speculation about the Future of Google and ITA Matrix
  • Google Buys ITA Software
  • Cancel Your Alaska Airlines Flights without Penalty

About Mike

On my first flights on Allegheny and Piedmont so many years ago, I immediately got the flying bug. After years of traveling I started the blogs and podcasts at UPGRD.com. And, like many of you, I've done a lot of flying for miles and status. I once flew from New York City to Honolulu and back again just for elite status (and a quick Mai Tai).

Primary Sidebar

Over 100K+ Followers

Subscribe to updates from Travel Codex

none

Learn to how to find the cheapest awards.

Search Now

none

Transfer points to get more value.

See Options

none

Compare credit cards to earn more miles.

Explore Offers

Contact

If you have a question or would like to make a press inquiry, please contact:

Scott Mackenzie
Editor in Chief
scott@travelcodex.com

For updates:
Subscribe to RSS
Subscribe to Apple News

Privacy Policy


© Travel Codex, LLC All Rights Reserved.


Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Travel Codex with appropriate and specific directions to the original content.