Google can be your best friend in many aspects of your life, that’s no secret. If you need an answer to your question, you just “Google it,” right? The same is true for cheap airline tickets using the Google.com/flights search engine. Recently, I booked two flights, one international and one domestic for less than what it would cost me to fly from Los Angeles to New York round trip during peak season. I found the cheap airplane tickets using Google Flights and it has been my number one resource in helping friends and family find inexpensive flights as well.

Here are examples of flights I booked recently:

Los Angeles to San Jose, Costa Rica

Purchased for $277 Round Trip on Copa/United Airlines
Average Cost in October $600

Los Angeles to Chicago

Purchased for $126 Round Trip on American Airlines
Average Cost in September ~$350

How to Book Cheap Flights Using Google as a Search Engine

 

Step One: Go to Google.com/flights.

Step Two: Enter the destination you want to visit and the point of origin.

Step Three: Select approximate dates for when you would like to take your trip and round trip or one way.

Example: Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro (LAX to GIG)

Step Four: Go to the calendar view by clicking on the calendar symbol on the date range.

The calendar option will show you the cost of round trip flights based on the number of days you selected. For example, if you entered that you would like to travel from 10/17/2015 -10/25/2015, the calendar view will show the cost of 9 days worth of travel. The dates in green are the cheapest price points for that month. You can scroll ahead a few months to see if you can find a better deal.

Step 5: Booking a flight

When you found the cheap fare for dates you’re happy with, select it. Your selection will give you options for different airlines that have flights available; the first one listed should be for the cheapest fare.

Step 6: Click the low fare that you want and you Google will present you with flight details including the airline, departure time, and layover information.

Step 7: You can’t book you trip through Google Flights. Instead, book through Orbitz.com. You should be able to see the same itinerary available for the same price on Orbitz.com , but here is the difference: Orbitz allows you to cancel a reservation for a full refund if canceled within 24 hours. Most airline terms do not offer a refund if you change your mind about the flight or will charge you a change fee.

Helpful Trip Planning Tip:

Now, here’s a tip … the price points may change unexpectedly, it could be more or it get be less. When I am feeling really antsy about going somewhere, what I do is think of 3 or 4 places I really want to travel to whether to see friends or go on an extended trip. Every morning spend about 15 minutes searching for flights to those destinations on Google Flights until I find a deal that I think is as low as I am happy to spend. I love budget traveling and I always say the biggest expense of a trip tends to be the flight so if you’re not booking a (almost) free flight using airline miles, then as cheap as it can get is what I go for. Unless it’s an emergency, I don’t think I will ever spend more than $700 to travel to an international destination.

What You Need to Know About Google Flights

1. Time is not on your side. When you find a really good flight deal, do not expect the fares to stay low for long.

2. I also track deals through Airfarewatchdog.com which sends me the lowest fares of the month for destinations that I am monitoring for cheap tickets. What I noticed is that when I find an amazing deal on Google Flights, I don’t get a notification from Airfare Watchdog about the deal until at least the next day. Think about all the other people who are looking for deals for the same destination that will be getting the same notification. By putting a little work into looking for a hot deal, you can almost be assured that the tickets at that low price point will be yours.

3. Sometimes the lowest price displayed is not the best deal. For example, when I was looking into flights from Los Angeles to Chicago, I found deals for $98 round trip on Google Flights with Frontier Airlines. $98!! When I looked at the fare details, I realized I would have to pay $30 for my carry-on each way so my round trip ticket would cost almost $160 which is still less than the average cost of most flights to Chi-Town, except in this case a round trip flight to Chicago from Los Angeles with American Airlines was $127 and no charge for a carry-on. In that situation I of course booked my flights with American Airlines which was the better deal even though Frontier is a budget carrier.

Have more questions about finding a TUI voucher code and cheap airfare with Google Flights or Airfare Watchdog? Leave your question in the comment section and I will be happy to find the right answer for you.

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