Google Flights

Welcome Google Flights! Almost a year ago, I wrote a v. brief post linking an article that explained how Google bought some software from ITA to get their foot in the travel industry and now they are here! I'm about a week late with this post, but I wanted to play with the site for a bit before blogging about it. Plus, it seems like it's a soft launch because I can't seem to do searches outside of the U.S. yet. Let me just say right now that I love it. Kayak is going to get a bit of competition!

Here's my screenshot pathetically dolled up in MSPaint highlighting the features. Though, really, I suggest you just hop on the site and play around with it yourself.

You just fill in the blanks (the yellow boxes) and the site immediately spits out a list of potential flights. You can sort by the given criteria (takeoff/arrival time, airline, price, etc.) to make it easy to choose.

If you have flexible travel dates you can click on that little calendar icon (purple arrow) and choose the dates based on the best price. The graph button (pink arrow) lets you filter your results based on your tolerance of flight duration and price. And of course, there are the normal filters - how many layovers you're willing to endure, the airline you prefer, the time of day you'd like to depart and/or land - to narrow down your results even further.

Once you find the flights you want, you click on your outbound flight, your return flight, and then an orange "Book" button will appear that links you to the site where you can purchase your ticket.

Even if you're on regular google search and you type in, "flights from new york to london," Google will give you a Google Flights search and link.

On a side note, 103 days until my Maui holiday! I know it's a long time from now but I'm excited because this screenshot was taken using my recently downloaded "Big Day Lite" app (re: my best travel apps page).









Cheers!