12 ms·

Google Flight Search

516 points by revorad 15y ago

andrewtbham 15y ago
Bad news for hipmunk? Especially since google acquired ITA.
- andrewtbham 15y ago
  The really bad news for hipmunk will be when google integrates it into their search results.
  - hugh3 15y ago
    What do you mean by "integrates it into their search results"? Hipmunk's killer feature is the ability to easily visualize the flight in terms of the time you leave, the time you arrive and the time spent at various intermediate locations. It becomes more useful when there are no nonstop flights. Google is taking a different approach with their UI, which is fine. In terms of whether I'd use google or hipmunk to search for flights in the future, I'd say that it depends on what my priorities are for that particular flight.
    - andrewtbham 15y ago
      by "integrate into their search results" i mean.. if you search google for "sfo lax" and it brins up this new Google Flight page with their organic results.
      - hugh3 15y ago
        Ah, I see. Sorry, the ambiguous "it" made me think "it" was hipmunk. Somehow.
  - raldi 15y ago
    Well, Adam has said in the past that only a small amount of Hipmunk's traffic comes from Google search results, so they don't really have that far to fall there. On the other hand, users are fickle and traffic can be a bit butterfly-effecty, so it's hard to predict the impact of something like this. That said, I don't expect Hipmunk to panic or take this lying down.
    - redthrowaway 15y ago
      So who are you rooting for? In the hypothetical world where there is a winner and a loser (which travel search pretty much is, given its maturity), are you rooting for the home team or for the guys you worked with for so long?
      - raldi 15y ago
        Well, I work at Google and some of my best friends are at Hipmunk, so the ideal outcome would be for Google to buy Hipmunk. Or vice versa.
        redthrowaway 15y ago
        >Or vice versa I like you.
- wavephorm 15y ago
  The bad news for hipmunk is it wasn't that much of an improvement over actual travel sites. I never had that much trouble using Expedia and I already know how to purchase my ticket right on the site. So there wasn't much reason to use Hipmunk in the first place. This Google search interface is pretty nice, and makes a lot more sense than Hipmunk did.
  - IanDrake 15y ago
    Really? Google gives you a sort-able grid which doesn't seem that helpful to me. Hipmunk gives me a "heat map" style presentation which I can understand multiple factors at once without scanning text: Color = carrier / layovers Line length = total travel duration Timeline position = flight start/end time Ordered by Agony (or whatever) I can take one quick look and grasp all the flights without a second thought. In my opinion, Hipmunk's UI is genius where Google's looks like a school project.
- tbrooks 15y ago
  Hipmunk's key differentiator is design. It's a pain in the ass to book flights and hotels. Hipmunk removed that pain by making it fun. Google's flight search doesn't look fun.
littlegiantcap 15y ago
Interesting, I like the simple layout, but it would be nice to have a price comparison of a few days in each direction like some sites have (I'm thinking Virgin Atlantic) so you can save some money by leaving a day early or a day late. Overall though bravo.
- smackfu 15y ago
  Yeah, I find that invaluable. My common case is that I am travelling one or two full weeks, but am flexible about whether I leave/return on Sat/Sun. Often staying one additional day is $200 more per person, above the price I value a day of vacation at.
- hugh3 15y ago
  Once you've done your search, click on the little calendar icon, and it gives you a lot of information about prices on other days.
  - littlegiantcap 15y ago
    Ah, missed it. Thanks.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- sciurus 15y ago
  They support that really well. Click on the calendar icon to the right of the 'Return' field.
  - roadnottaken 15y ago
    Oh that's really cool! It should be more-prominent.
mindstab 15y ago
ha a flight search engine that only does flights inside the US? cute, but of limited use. I won't hold my breath just yet.
eslaught 15y ago
I wonder if they allowed ITA to keep writing in Common Lisp...
- raldi 15y ago
  "Knowledge of LISP" is still showing up on job postings: http://www.google.com/jobs/itasoftware/eng/ita-software-software-engineer-data-and-reporting-cambridge-ita/index.html http://www.google.com/jobs/itasoftware/eng/ita-software-soft...
PedroCandeias 15y ago
Well, it was a matter of time, wasn't it? For now it's a bit too fiddly when compared to the likes of Hipmunk, save for the booking process which is quite streamlined. And the search itself, which is blazing fast. On second thought, this is really not a bad effort. I can see it gaining huge traction in no time.
smackfu 15y ago
"Sorry, locations outside the U.S. are currently not supported." Are you kidding me?
- zyb09 15y ago
  as usual
  - bsergean 15y ago
    "Beta"
- jblow 15y ago
  I also don't see any way to search for non-economy-class flights...
- yanw 15y ago
  First iteration.
  - smackfu 15y ago
    I have never even heard of a flight search not supporting international flights.
    - hugh3 15y ago
      Well, now you have! It's a much simpler problem to solve first.
    - yanw 15y ago
      It's an obvious next step then. Their hotel search tool is US only as well: http://www.google.com/hotelfinder http://www.google.com/hotelfinder I guess when they are combined into /travel they will be internationalized.
    - Pewpewarrows 15y ago
      Release early. Release often. Minimum viable product. Any of these ring a bell?
hugh3 15y ago
That really is good. Hipmunk is still better if you know what days you want to fly, but this is great if you haven't yet decided precisely when, or precisely where, you want to go. A pity it only works within the US so far, but I'm sure they'll add international destinations eventually. Also a shame that Southwest still won't cooperate with any of these guys. I guess it's a rational decision on their part: be cheapest most of the time and hope that people won't bother to compare your fares to others.
- marquis 15y ago
  Yes, the first site that has JetBlue and SouthWest comparisons with the major airlines will have my traffic. I usually prefer to travel on price when it's not business so I love how Google has made this clear - that's my core problem with Hipmunk and I'm not sure why they don't just tell you the cheapest days to fly, like Kayak at least tries to. I also like how http://skyscanner.com http://skyscanner.com does it.
  - goldfish 15y ago
    We (Hipmunk) have Jetblue, and so does Kayak and Google. We also let you figure out the cheapest days to fly: just click "I'm flexible."
    - hugh3 15y ago
      Good to hear. You also have one killer competitive advantage: an adorable logo.
    - harisenbon 15y ago
      Thanks for that tip! i've been looking for a service like that, but I never saw that link on hipmunk. Thanks for a great service.
    - listic 15y ago
      Maybe you should have "I'm flexible" on the results page, too? Skyscanner does. I would not find it without your hint.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
nubela 15y ago
Sorry, locations outside the U.S. are currently not supported. -- Ugh, lame.
27182818284 15y ago
Faster than Hipmunk, but can't do international flights yet.
cletus 15y ago
Internally, this has been around for a little while (disclaimer: I work for Google but not on anything related to this). What continues to impress me about Google is: 1. Just how quickly this was built (really, it was quick); and 2. Google wants you to use our services because they're compelling not because we don't give you any other choice (ie "Don't be evil"). Sure there are limits to what it currently does but I think you'll see it rapidly iterate.
- maddalab 15y ago
  ITA Software, acquired by Google in the last year, has always had this functionality available at [1]. In fact it is more full featured with ability to search international flight and a number of other options. There are even apps for iphone and android. This functionality pales in comparison to what is available there. I do not see the point of building this rather than have people use what is better and currently available. [1] http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ http://matrix.itasoftware.com/
  - tonfa 15y ago
    How fast is Matrix? How does it scale?
- revorad 15y ago
  It says "Ads" on the booking options. What's the business model?
- bradleyland 15y ago
  Let's be honest. Google wants us to use their services because the better they understand us, the better they can advertise to us. That's the profit model at Google. I don't begrudge them for it either. You've got to turn a profit if you want to keep the lights on. I don't mean any offense, but the "Don't be evil" mantra is growing a bit tired. Evil is a strong word, and "not being evil" is a pretty low bar, IMO.
  - yanw 15y ago
    They specify what they mean by "evil": http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/googevil http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/googevil
revorad 15y ago
In true Google style, they are focusing on speed, with a minimal UI.
- r00fus 15y ago
  Unexpected was the minimal data part... They have a short look-ahead and don't work with any international destinations. The folks who are most interested in this app are the ones who are most likely interested in the above two points.
geuis 15y ago
General question here. Almost all flight search sites default the search dates to about 3 weeks out. Now, I find this annoying but I'm wondering if its done because there is statistical evidence that most customers search in that range of time, or rather if it's just what someone thought would be a good idea by "following their intuition".
- roc 15y ago
  The rule of thumb that I've heard was that anything about a month out represented the 'normal' price. If you're buying a ticket for a flight less than a month away, the prices start to rise dramatically as the flight date draws nearer. But if you're buying a ticket for a flight more than a month away, it's more-or-less the same price as a flight that's a month away. [1] So absent any other information, the 'normal' price can help people ballpark costs more quickly, something I'd expect to be statistically more common than actually searching to book a specific flight on specific dates. [1] With exceptions for destinations with very defined/popular seasons, holidays and things like that.
- dot 15y ago
  I guess Google will be able to fill this automatically by checking your Google calendar for recently added events in other cities. :)
- smackfu 15y ago
  It seems like the default search is just for people who want to see "about how much is a ticket between X and Y?" Anyone doing a real search has real dates. By placing the time frame a few weeks out, you avoid including very expensive last minute tickets, and do a better job getting general flight prices.
- goldfish 15y ago
  It depends on the kind of traveler (business travelers have shorter lead-time, leisure travelers have longer), but 3 weeks is a reasonable guess—probably on the shorter end—for what Google customers will be looking for.
- geuis 15y ago
antimora 15y ago
Is it me, or that app is super fast?
- smackfu 15y ago
  It probably is caching data from other people's searches, similar to what Kayak does. This is cool right up until you try to actually book a flight and it sells out or goes up in price dramatically.
  - laconian 15y ago
    Wait, is this actually the case with the Google product?
- LogicX 15y ago
  Yes, you're looking at ITA's InstaSearch product, which delivers near real-time results, compared to the traditional QPX product. There were many articles about Google's acquisition of ITA, and various stipulations around InstaSearch: "As a condition of the deal, Google must continue to license ITA's QPX software for airfare websites on "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms" through 2016. And it must commit to continued investment in ITA's QPX software and in ITA's unreleased InstaSearch product, which aims to provide near instant airline fare quotes." http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/article/229401259 http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/article/22940... Disclosure: I worked for ITA until rumors of the acquisition.
reagan83 15y ago
Jesus, this amazing.
tonfa 15y ago
I love the scatter plot graph (with duration/price), it is so geeky :)
0x12 15y ago
It's only a problem for hipmunk as long as google doesn't 'retire' the project. Give it 6 months or so.
- piyush_ranjan 15y ago
  I agree. 6 months max
martingordon 15y ago
Looks nice and it has great potential, especially since it isn't cluttered with links to Expedia/Priceline like the others are. That said, I can't really use it until it supports multiple destinations/open jaw in a single search.
samstokes 15y ago
The (well-hidden) "Limits" widget is a very cool bit of visual / visceral UI design. Click the "scatter graph" button next to the Duration field and you get a scatter plot of duration against price for all the flights - which is useful data in itself - then you can drag a boundary around to set the maximum duration or price.
kingkilr 15y ago
Very nice, my only complaint is they don't have Southwest pricing. No one else does either, so Southwest continues to bring me to their site :)
- zaggggg 15y ago
  In addition, http://getawayfinder.southwest.com/ http://getawayfinder.southwest.com/ has been around for some time already.
- iron_ball 15y ago
  No one else does either, so I don't fly Southwest.
kellysutton 15y ago
"5 unknown price" Looks like it needs another QA pass.
- mlinsey 15y ago
  Were those Southwest flights? I think SWA doesn't let any of the aggregators display prices for their flights - I was pleasantly surprised that I saw Southwest flights at all.
  - kellysutton 15y ago
    I was pointing out the obvious typo. It should read "5 unknown prices."
fmavituna 15y ago
Great implementation. Recently I've been playing with skyscanner and HipMunk. This will definitely replace them for me when international support arrives.
amirmc 15y ago
Just for some context, here's the previous HN discussion when Google announced their acquisition of ITA in July 2010. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1479107 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1479107
toot 15y ago
It's quite scary that a company like Google can come along and shit in a startup's cereal practically overnight. I know we were all rooting for The 'Munk, but it seems that Google's use of Price x Duration matrix effectively steals the thunder from Hipmunk's agony filter. I mean, it's not as if Google needs the affiliate revenue, and I bet the Hipmunk guys would have preferred it had Google decided to "organise the world's information" through an acquisition. I think I'd need a good cry if this happened to me :(
- raldi 15y ago
  It wasn't overnight. ITA has been doing flight search since forever. In fact, they even had the matrix UI before Hipmunk (though it wasn't featured as prominently): http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-company-that-HipMunk-copied-design-wise http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-company-that-HipMunk-copied...
- goldfish 15y ago
  No tears over here! We've known this was coming for almost a year—Google announced their ITA acquisition before we even launched. We've also been preparing some sweet responses :)
  - revorad 15y ago
    Attaboy! Still rooting for you guys. You should add gigaballs of steel to the mascot.
  - crenshaw 15y ago
    Nice. You have a lot of people on your side.
kiwidrew 15y ago
It’s rather powerful: as long as the origin airport is one of those shown on the map, and the destination airport is reachable via a domestic flight on one of the major airlines (AA, AS, B6, CO, DL, F9, UA, US), the search results come back instantaneously. Multiple origins and destinations (up to five of each) are supported as well: http://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=LAX,SFO,SEA,LAS,DEN;t=ORD,BOS,MIA,ATL,CLT;d=2011-10-10;r=2011-10-14;mp=1300;md=690 http://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=LAX,SFO,SEA,LAS,DEN;... And the results still come back immediately! Including the three-month chart of prices. This leads me to believe that Google/ITA has precomputed all of these results, and is simply serving these results out of a cache of some sort. That would explain why they are only offering a limited set of origin airports at this time: it probably takes an incredible amount of computing power and storage space to pre-calculate all of the possible results. Colour me impressed.
- stingraycharles 15y ago
  Interesting. That makes me wonder: would that really be the optimal approach? Google is able to return search results for previously unsearched queries nearly instantaneously too, so I'm wondering whether it's really a cache that's serving those queries. Would some sort of graph-based index be possible in this situation?
  - kiwidrew 15y ago
    Yes, using a shortest path tree [1], it is possible to efficiently (for some definition of "efficient") calculate the best path from a single origin node to all destination nodes in the graph. Dijkstra's algorithm is the standard implementation, but is not very amenable to parallel processing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Google has a framework called Pregel [2] which does parallel graph processing. Their research paper outlines how it can be used to calculate a single-source shortest path tree (in section 5.2) in reasonable time. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortest_path_tree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortest_path_tree [2] http://www-bd.lip6.fr/ens/grbd2011/extra/SIGMOD10_pregel.pdf http://www-bd.lip6.fr/ens/grbd2011/extra/SIGMOD10_pregel.pdf
  - noduerme 15y ago
tamersalama 15y ago
This is just beautiful. Data matrix is innovative, UI is out of the way, slick and to the point interface, and it even takes you to the correct 3rd party booking pages. I can't wait till this is implemented in Canada. Kayak beware!
- jonjamz 15y ago
  > Kayak beware! This definitely looks better than Kayak. ^_^
badclient 15y ago
When I want to do a flight search, I don't usually think of a map.
markmccraw 15y ago
If I were expedia, orbitz, priceline, travelocity, kayak, hipmunk. etc. I'd be very very afraid. Sure, google won't actually do the sales, but they are linking direct to airline websites for now. Also this doesn't exist for hotels. Yet. The odds that in 1 year that any of those sites have a better UI or superior search capabilities than Google is low. So, what will they bring to the table? Also, what's up with all these people saying that it's so limited because it doesn't do international and such. It seems very obvious that this thing will get better and better and like others have said, eventually end up on top of the search page. This is assuming it gains traction quickly and doesn't get nuked.
adaml_623 15y ago
My First Impression: No international flights yet: Fail but not surprising That's okay I want to fly from NY to Vegas next year. No flights for April 2012: Fail that was not expected. I don't really understand why Google launches stuff like this when it has a lovely user interface but is a bit halfbaked in terms of the data that they've put in. I guess I'll go back in a years time when they remind me about it.
- modeless 15y ago
  Many airlines don't allow you to book tickets more than 6 months in advance at their own websites. I don't think it's surprising that Google didn't prioritize 6+ month advance ticket purchases.
RossM 15y ago
Just the other day I was wondering "why isn't there a flight option in Maps?", well here you go then, there soon will be.
awj 15y ago
To me, that map seems like a very confusing bit of UI. The cities themselves are really tiny interaction points, I'm a relatively experienced FPS gamer and hitting those points accurately involves more fumbling than it should. You cannot drag departure/arrival pins. Streetview kind of taught me that this should be a mechanism for manipulating this sort of location reference. The big one, though, is that layovers are not reflected on the map. Granted, it may push me slightly towards more expensive flights, but I would appreciate the ability to see the grid of ugliness and waiting I'm buying into to get that super cheap ticket. I don't think that map as it is now is worth the screen real estate.
- rhygar 15y ago
  The whole thing has "designed by an engineer" all over it. From hidden UI that reveals itself by clicking/hovering on various elements, to the entire process being limited to one screen which various pop-out elements and transformations. There is little consistency in the design, and poor or no usage of contrast to separate information visually. When clicking the large blue button to the right of a flight, several rows of return flights drop down below that. The only visual distinction between these specific sub-rows and the other departing flights below is a thin blue/gray border on the sides. Going from A to B is called an "Outbound flight", while going from B to A is called a "Return flight". Copy is very important in UI design. It should be outbound/inbound or depart/return, not some mix of different terminology. Durations are always "-- Xh -->". What is the point of the arrow if it is always pointing to the right? Why is the duration a lighter shade than the rest of the text? The left column is a Gawker/Gizmodo style static column that locks in place when scrolling down. The Google search results page doesn't do that. These are basics, and a company the size of Google with as many employees as it has should be able to get these things right.
  - waqf 15y ago
    Outbound/return is standard terminology all over the travel industry. Including in UK and US, and for trains and for planes: I'm surprised you're not familiar with it. "Depart" means something different: it refers to the beginning of each leg of the journey. Its opposite is "arrive". So you might have an outbound leg which departs from LAX and arrives in SFO, and then a return leg which departs from SFO and arrives in LAX.
DevX101 15y ago
If your startup is involved with search aimed at the consumer market, watch out...Google is coming. In a few weeks/months Google will be featuring this search result when you type "nyc to sfo" and take a big bite out of orbitz, kayak, and whoever's lunch that's in this space. EDIT: The counterargument to this, is that orbitz, kayak, and friends are some of the heaviest purchasers of PPC ads. So Google be at risk of cannibalizing if they push this too hard.
- zitterbewegung 15y ago
  The counterargument to your counterargument is that google could start taking over what they cannibalize and make more money directly.
  - andrenotgiant 15y ago
    Exactly, it's simple economics: If Orbitz et al. get $5 per Airline ticket sold, they can only afford to pay Google up to $4.99 for the click. Google can take the $5 from the Airlines and laugh all the way to the bank.
    - Djehngo 15y ago
      The issue is that in order to do that google would have to only list flights from airlines that are willing to pay them $5. If the airline refuses to pay and google doesn't display their flights then their results are incomplete. The airlines will probably understand that google wants to be able to list their flights and will negotiate harder because of it.
      - polshaw 15y ago
        This is a dangerous game however; the flip-side is that the airline has more potential profit to lose by not having google to sell their flights for them.
- John212 15y ago
  > If your startup is involved with search aimed at the consumer market, watch out...Google is coming. Possibly... However sites like hipmunk will be used as a comparison in so many press articles and blog posts when google starts pushing this. Many start ups have won against google. Google Notepad & Evernote, Google Wave & Twitter, Google Ride Finder & Uber etc... .. but I still wouldn't want to be in this space right now.
emehrkay 15y ago
Interface was confusing at first: you click the "x from $xxx" then you choose a return flight by clicking the sub="x from $xxx" with the time you'd like to return. Then you can book. This is cool though
stevenp 15y ago
Honestly, the lack of a good API by any provider is one of the biggest barriers to entry in this space. I wonder if the Hipmunk guys might release one? I'd be thrilled to send affiliate traffic to the first company that makes good on this.
JoshTriplett 15y ago
Not bad, but hipmunk's visualization seems far far better than Google's tables. The graphical representation of the flight path seems nice, as does the highlighting of cities involved, but that doesn't actually give me information I need to make a decision; Hipmunk's time-oriented chart of departures, arrivals, and layovers tells me exactly what I need to know to book a flight.
- kongqiu 15y ago
  Exactly. This would intimidate my aunt; Hipmunk would amaze her.
  - kn0thing 15y ago
    I hope she'd like the chipmunk, too!
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
jeffem 15y ago
They must be accessing prior flight search history in some way or they made a really lucky guess with their default selections. I've recently searched for flights on Expedia and Southwest (I don't think I've visited anywhere else). Google already had those same dates and cities selected by default.
splish 15y ago
Unless I'm missing something fairly obvious, they might have missed something pretty big - is there any way to book a one way flight?
- boyd 15y ago
  Agreed -- couldn't find it in the first 30 seconds, which is sort of a red flag...
tedkalaw 15y ago
Is there anyway to do one-way flights? I really like it so far but cannot for the life of me figure out if one-way is possible.
- billboebel 15y ago
  I can't find it either. I would have actually used it today since I found it right as I was about to search for a flight on Kayak... but w/o one-way I can't use it.
mcdowall 15y ago
I had always imagined they would try to dabble in flight search but always assumed the sheer volume of their travel ppc clients would restrict it. Big revenue gamble.
dhruvbird 15y ago
This had to happen sooner than later after the ITA aquisition. I wonder why it took them so long.
faulkner 15y ago
Decent initial release, but I wish the search was more flexible. My common use case is "I will spend $X to go anywhere for under Y days any time in the future" and I haven't found a service that makes this easy. Kayak's "explore" page is the closest I've found, but they rarely have the cheapest flights listed and have no way to set duration. Has anyone found a better solution?
- rebelnz 15y ago
  These guys almost fulfil that requirement - I use their service pretty regularly. http://adioso.com/ http://adioso.com/
angus77 15y ago
We have detected that you are using an unsupported web browser. We support Firefox 3.5 or later, Chrome, Safari 4 or later, or Internet Explorer 8 or later. ?!? I'm using the Android browser!
rufo 15y ago
Completely useless for me. Doesn't find a single flight out of ROC.
pumainmotion 15y ago
As is evident from some of the comments here, the map and the search bar on top are totally extraneous to the basic task that the user wishes to perform. The absolute barebones should be shown: Starting location, Destination, Dates. And then maybe a less noisy version of the price-points plot from which one can just drag and drop certain options into a bucket for comparison. The fact that so much scrolling needs to be done to even get a basic understanding of the results means this needs to be reworked.
stevoski 15y ago
I try to get a flight from Frankfurt - the 9th busiest airport in the world. - and I get "Unavailable". Post this again when I can actually use it.
- nlh 15y ago
  When you search for a destination airport outside of the US, you get a very clear message: "Sorry, locations outside the U.S. are currently not supported." They're taking the release-early-iterate-often approach to this new service, which means that they're not going to make everyone happy immediately. Rather than dismiss this new service just because it doesn't fit your specific use case right now, think about this from a different (i.e. hacker) perspective -- this is a cool new service that will obviously become even cooler as it gets more advanced.
  - stevoski 15y ago
    I agree totally...just pointing out that the site is useless to us living outside of the USA. Hard to get excited about something that is, from a European resident's perspective, useless.
marcamillion 15y ago
This is one of those late nights at Hipmunk. Good luck guys!
kin 15y ago
My eyes dilated when using the auto price feature. Also the speed and ease of adjusting the dates by a day is impressive.
iskander 15y ago
Any idea when they expand beyond the US?
iradik 15y ago
I think they will integrate this with google maps and give around the world directions. Pretty cool.
ofca 15y ago
hipmunk, hold on to your 'nackers :)
pmorici 15y ago
I don't understand why anyone would use a federated flight search when looking for a domestic flight in the US. None of the major airlines come close to Southwest in terms of price or hassle free travel and none of the flight search engines include price information for Southwest.
- T-hawk 15y ago
  Perhaps for the still-common case of flying to an airport where Southwest doesn't go? Southwest gets to be cheap in significant part by only flying routes with enough demand to fill a 737. And on rare occasions another airline does beat Southwest's price. Sometimes I see flights in and out of JFK turn up cheaper on Delta.
eren-tantekin 15y ago
Sorry, locations outside the U.S. are currently not supported :/
drallison 15y ago
Wow ... but then I am not really sure it meets my needs. For one thing, it does not recognize may local airport and keeps wanting me to fly out of another airport a good 4 hour drive away! And while it is good at displaying cost differentials for different destinations it does not seem to do as well for the same destination at different times with different carriers. Still, it is interesting.
mahmud 15y ago
U.S. only.
esutton 15y ago
what will be a game changing tool, and something befitting the resources of google, would be to pair flights together that are cheaper than what is offered by the airline. for instance: flying from NY to LA. Airlines sell this route non stop, or through one of their hubs. But imagine if a flight search can figure out that a oneway flight from ny to new orleans on Delta and than a flight from new orleans on AA, had a low layover and was significantly cheaper than the published routes. The problem is that as this expands to more cities and takes more stops, you end up hitting an NP problem.
- kiwidrew 15y ago
  It's unlikely that the Delta fare from NYC to MSY and the American fare from MSY to LAX permit end-on-end combination with each other, so it would have to be issued as two separate tickets. What happens if your Delta flight to New Orleans is delayed and you miss your connecting flight to Los Angeles on American? Neither carrier is going to offer you any compensation, and your travel insurance probably has a clause which excludes misconnections caused by an airline's late arrival. There are occasions when this strategy produces good results, however: last year I needed a last-minute one way flight from a small southeastern city (TYS / Knoxville) to San Francisco, and the fares were extremely high ($800+). But flights to Orlando were very cheap due to competition from low-cost leisure carriers, and the last-minute fares from Orlando (MCO) to San Francisco were quite reasonable. I booked, on a single ticket and flying on a single airline the entire way, TYS-IAD-MCO-IAD-DEN-SFO. This gave me a TYS-MCO fare plus an MCO-SFO fare, which was hundreds of dollars cheaper than the more direct TYS-DEN-SFO. At the time, saving money was a lot more important than getting to San Francisco a couple of hours earlier. A cunning plan that cannot fail! Except that I missed my first flight of the morning due to an overnight road closure that blocked my only way of leaving the house. By the time that I got to the airport, my originally booked flight had already left and I was faced with a very long wait for the next flight to IAD, which virtually guaranteed I wouldn't even make it to San Francisco that day. It was only through a combination of charisma and blind luck that I managed to convince the airline to reroute me direct through Denver, which is completely against company policy. They only charged me the $50 same-day standby fee. Needless to say, I would never sell that sort of a ticket to the general public. Far too many different ways in which things could go horribly wrong. It's also likely that the airlines would promptly revoke your ticketing privileges with them were they to discover you were routinely issuing these sorts of tickets.
samstave 15y ago
You know what would my make flights better (I travel a lot for work - but work out of my house and book a lot of my own travel) I want to be able to setup standard trips/itineraries and be able to single clik re-book them with simply a leave and return date. Further, I want the system to auto arrange for a cab/shuttle/uber to pick me up and take me to my destination. For example, I fly to LAX several times a month - Nome Alaska once a month, Soon it will be Dallas once a month - and various places in the bay area. If I can setup my "Visit LAX trip" with all my details and know that a car was waiting for me when I got to LAX to take me to my office/hotel and I didnt have to do anything other than click "Re-book LAX" that would save me so much time and hassle. I would setup my preferred airlines, times and seats (Virgin America etc...)
- bengl3rt 15y ago
  May I ask what you do, and how I might get into doing it? I am craving a job with > 0 travel...
  - samstave 15y ago
    I am a healthcare consultant. I consult on new hospital builds and ensuring the organizations are prepared to get licensed and then move in.
retrofit_brain 15y ago
Wow what a relief to see they are dogfooding. This is built on GWT and the performance is kick ass.
jnw2 15y ago
I was under the impression that Amtrak from Newark Airport to 30th St Station in Philadelphia was available as an airline code share (and that train segment is fast enough that there's no good reason to get on a plane for Newark<->Philadelphia, even if you are connecting to another flight out of Newark), but I haven't figured out how to find such a code share with Google's flight search tools. (The governor of IL and the Chicago mayor also asked Amtrak to study how to extend some of the Amtrak routes to O'Hare, presumably to replace some ``commuter'' flights, and they wanted the study done by the end of this summer, but I haven't seen any evidence of the study being done yet.)
rickdale 15y ago
When are people going to stop solving this problem and start building super sonic airplanes like the concord? The airline industry moves backwards in technology and trying to build a flight search engine to wrap around it is really a band-aid to the real situation. If I could get to Vegas in half the time, or even a quarter of the time (currently takes 4 hours, could take 1 in supersonic jet) I would pay at least double price for a ticket, and I wouldnt even need a seat. My point is if you fly coach especially with Delta they treat you like a slave and stuff you with almost zero space to move (I am american, but not obese (5'9, 200lb). Forget flight search engines I can find a flight, make a me a faster more tolerable flight, you are friggin GOOGLE!
- usaar333 15y ago
  Drag (and hence power required) is roughly proportional to the square of the velocity. You want to go twice as fast? You better be willing to pay (at least) 4x the ticket price. And since most people want cheaper tickets over flight time, you'll have to pay even more to compensate for the lack of economies of scale. Computer efficiency still is rapidly moving up. Airplane efficiency is near its limits.
NuecadFoi 15y ago
Game over. Disclaimer: This is a throwaway account. I'm a person who has had a travel startup. I've decided to halt, once Google has finally acquired ITA Software. Travel is one of the world's largest industries (~5th), and online sales are its significant part (~10-30%, depending on the market), growing strongly. Online travel agencies (OTA) are among the few companies on web that get real money (~$150 per sale) from customers (it is relatively easy to make serious revenue). Online travel sales consist mostly of flight bookings, and hotel reservations. On these markets, there are roughly three categories of players. Airlines and hotels _provide_ the inventory, that is flights and hotel rooms. Computer reservations systems (GDS) _manage_ the inventory. Online travel agencies _sell_ the inventory. Specifically, there are thousands of airlines and hotels (e.g. Hyatt, Lufthansa). However, there are only three major GDS operators in the US and Europe (i.e. Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport), as well as only few big OTAs (i.e. Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, Hotels.com, and Opodo). Few decades ago, before Internet, airlines and hotels were unable to sell inventory on their own. It definitely takes more time to set up an office than a connection between two airports. Thus, it made sense to use travel agencies for this purpose. Over time, airlines and hotels became also unable to manage their inventory. Synchronization of reservations between thousands of third parties is a non-trivial task, not a core competency of involved companies. Thus, it made sense to use a middle man. That's what GDS systems do. They manage inventory, what includes reservations (PNR), its availability, prices, and exchanging data with others. As far as I know, right now, airlines and hotels pay them for the service, and for each reservation made (~few bucks). Internet has complicated things a bit. Travel agencies are no longer so vital, as both airlines and hotels are able (at least, they think so) to sell the inventory on their own. Unfortunately, they were too slow again, and OTAs has emerged meanwhile (Expedia), giving the second youth to GDS companies. The ecosystem is like an old marriage couple, although a threesome. Each party hat hates each other, but there's no other way around. To oversimplify a bit, OTAs have _customers_ (traffic), GDS systems _manage_ the inventory (with airlines, hotels, and OTAs) and both airlines and hotels _provide_ the inventory, after all. From time to time there's an affair. Low-cost airlines try to distrupt the market by selling tickets so cheaply partially because they sell them directly. Major OTAs, like Expedia, partially grow to a GDS category. Some airlines or hotel chains withdraw from GDS systems, and return eventually with negiotiated better fees. However, it's mostly business as usual. Today, if you want to start an online travel agency you have to speak with a GDS company. Depending on your market, it might be Amadeus, Sabre or Travelport. After a long selling process, you get access to the system, and you can start selling the reservations. What's important, though, nearly all systems used today were created a decade, or two, ago. As core competency of GDS companies is in selling, then, as far as I know, they outsource the software evelopment to third parties, and it's not that easy to innovate on a critical part of the world's infrastructure. What you end up with, then, is an access to an undocumented API that lets you to search, and manage your reservations. Insiders are used to the quirks, like waiting few seconds until you get the response, random issues, or hinting the system so you get a better response than others. Importantly, you're actively discoured to cache the data, as the prices change rather frequently. The critical part here is search. It's a mathematically non-trivial problem to very quickly find rates within thousands of connections, definitely beyond technical know-how of GDS operators, airlines and hotels. ITA Software has managed to get access to the inventory and while, as far as I know, they do not sell resevations, they've created a much better (faster) search. Meanwhile, few years ago, metasearches (e.g. Kayak, Hipmunk) emerged. Smart folks have realized that the competition is on price, customers look for a single place to compare prices, and operate under assumption that what really counts is traffic. From both customers and metasearch perspective, it does not make that big difference where do they buy the reservation from, an OTA or directly from an airline. So, here we are today. As a beggining travel agency, you likely have to pay annually for access, and for each request made, especially if you exceed the quota negotiated with the GDS company. Few years ago you were able to make profit by incurring a transaction fee to each ticket sold, but now transaction fees are nearly non-existent, and it's more frequent to rely on provisions from GDS companies, and, sometimes, airlines. What's your competetive advantage? Basically, you cannot provide much better product than your competitors, as everyone relies on the similar legacy GDS system that returns the flight details rather slowly. Most of the time, only choices are either to show the results a bit differently, or bet on more trustful brand. The focus is on efficiency. Profit per ticket is so slim, so cost of customers acquisitions is what really matters. OTAs, metasearches and, increasingly, airlines, together with hotels, master SEM, SEO, and other forms of advertisement (newsletters, banners). They live and die by the numbers. If you've figured out how to scalably make $1 more profit on each reservation made, you're covered for some time. The novel methods are, obviously, eventually realized by others, too. In this race to the bottom there's one clear winner. Google's AdWords is a major source of traffic for all parties, and I bet that they already make the biggest profit off each reservation made. Once Google has acquired ITA Software, they now have both traffic and the inventory.
frankiewarren 15y ago
This makes a ton of sense to me. Users already trust Google with search and connecting people with airlines has baked-in revenue. This also has tremendous advertising potential. Imagine if local restaurants could target ads at people who will be traveling to the area in the next three months.
joeyj01 15y ago
It is amazing! I hope outside U.S service will come soon and calculate flights globally.
xedarius 15y ago
Please build this in Europe, searching for flights is so painful. I hope you're looking at this web site Expedia!
skylar 15y ago
We built this at Yahoo! in summer 2007 after the FareChase acquisition. Took about a week or so to prototype, and a couple months to offer various filter/search criteria and prepare for launch. With access the good flight data APIs it's a pretty simple app. Of course for us it was never allowed to launch. Glad to see Google was finally able to push something like this. Main feature missing that Y! Faremaps had is the ability to specify a span of time in which you wanted to travel and the cheapest trips in that timeframe were shown. Also, you could search "weekends only" in that timeframe.
supahfly_remix 15y ago
I don't see any Southwest or JetBlue airlines flights listed. Both usually have very competitive pricing on some routes.
JohannTh 15y ago
I work for Dohop (www.dohop.com), a direct competitor of Google's new flight thing. We have been worried about Google's entrance into the field for a while, but after today we are breathing easier. No international? No one-way? I know Google will change this, but why put out such a wildly underwhelming product? And finally, since they are basing the whole thing on ITA anyway, we don't expect them to do anything Kayak isn't already doing.

516 points by revorad 15y ago

andrewtbham 15y ago

Bad news for hipmunk? Especially since google acquired ITA.

andrewtbham 15y ago
The really bad news for hipmunk will be when google integrates it into their search results.
- hugh3 15y ago
  What do you mean by "integrates it into their search results"? Hipmunk's killer feature is the ability to easily visualize the flight in terms of the time you leave, the time you arrive and the time spent at various intermediate locations. It becomes more useful when there are no nonstop flights. Google is taking a different approach with their UI, which is fine. In terms of whether I'd use google or hipmunk to search for flights in the future, I'd say that it depends on what my priorities are for that particular flight.
  - andrewtbham 15y ago
    by "integrate into their search results" i mean.. if you search google for "sfo lax" and it brins up this new Google Flight page with their organic results.
    - hugh3 15y ago
      Ah, I see. Sorry, the ambiguous "it" made me think "it" was hipmunk. Somehow.
- raldi 15y ago
  Well, Adam has said in the past that only a small amount of Hipmunk's traffic comes from Google search results, so they don't really have that far to fall there. On the other hand, users are fickle and traffic can be a bit butterfly-effecty, so it's hard to predict the impact of something like this. That said, I don't expect Hipmunk to panic or take this lying down.
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
    So who are you rooting for? In the hypothetical world where there is a winner and a loser (which travel search pretty much is, given its maturity), are you rooting for the home team or for the guys you worked with for so long?
    - raldi 15y ago
      Well, I work at Google and some of my best friends are at Hipmunk, so the ideal outcome would be for Google to buy Hipmunk. Or vice versa.
      - redthrowaway 15y ago
        >Or vice versa I like you.
wavephorm 15y ago
The bad news for hipmunk is it wasn't that much of an improvement over actual travel sites. I never had that much trouble using Expedia and I already know how to purchase my ticket right on the site. So there wasn't much reason to use Hipmunk in the first place. This Google search interface is pretty nice, and makes a lot more sense than Hipmunk did.
- IanDrake 15y ago
  Really? Google gives you a sort-able grid which doesn't seem that helpful to me. Hipmunk gives me a "heat map" style presentation which I can understand multiple factors at once without scanning text: Color = carrier / layovers Line length = total travel duration Timeline position = flight start/end time Ordered by Agony (or whatever) I can take one quick look and grasp all the flights without a second thought. In my opinion, Hipmunk's UI is genius where Google's looks like a school project.
tbrooks 15y ago
Hipmunk's key differentiator is design. It's a pain in the ass to book flights and hotels. Hipmunk removed that pain by making it fun. Google's flight search doesn't look fun.

littlegiantcap 15y ago

Interesting, I like the simple layout, but it would be nice to have a price comparison of a few days in each direction like some sites have (I'm thinking Virgin Atlantic) so you can save some money by leaving a day early or a day late. Overall though bravo.

smackfu 15y ago
Yeah, I find that invaluable. My common case is that I am travelling one or two full weeks, but am flexible about whether I leave/return on Sat/Sun. Often staying one additional day is $200 more per person, above the price I value a day of vacation at.
hugh3 15y ago
Once you've done your search, click on the little calendar icon, and it gives you a lot of information about prices on other days.
- littlegiantcap 15y ago
  Ah, missed it. Thanks.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
sciurus 15y ago
They support that really well. Click on the calendar icon to the right of the 'Return' field.
- roadnottaken 15y ago
  Oh that's really cool! It should be more-prominent.

mindstab 15y ago

ha a flight search engine that only does flights inside the US? cute, but of limited use. I won't hold my breath just yet.

eslaught 15y ago

I wonder if they allowed ITA to keep writing in Common Lisp...

raldi 15y ago
"Knowledge of LISP" is still showing up on job postings: http://www.google.com/jobs/itasoftware/eng/ita-software-software-engineer-data-and-reporting-cambridge-ita/index.html http://www.google.com/jobs/itasoftware/eng/ita-software-soft...

PedroCandeias 15y ago

Well, it was a matter of time, wasn't it? For now it's a bit too fiddly when compared to the likes of Hipmunk, save for the booking process which is quite streamlined. And the search itself, which is blazing fast. On second thought, this is really not a bad effort. I can see it gaining huge traction in no time.

smackfu 15y ago

"Sorry, locations outside the U.S. are currently not supported." Are you kidding me?

zyb09 15y ago
as usual
- bsergean 15y ago
  "Beta"
jblow 15y ago
I also don't see any way to search for non-economy-class flights...
yanw 15y ago
First iteration.
- smackfu 15y ago
  I have never even heard of a flight search not supporting international flights.
  - hugh3 15y ago
    Well, now you have! It's a much simpler problem to solve first.
  - yanw 15y ago
    It's an obvious next step then. Their hotel search tool is US only as well: http://www.google.com/hotelfinder http://www.google.com/hotelfinder I guess when they are combined into /travel they will be internationalized.
  - Pewpewarrows 15y ago
    Release early. Release often. Minimum viable product. Any of these ring a bell?

hugh3 15y ago

That really is good. Hipmunk is still better if you know what days you want to fly, but this is great if you haven't yet decided precisely when, or precisely where, you want to go. A pity it only works within the US so far, but I'm sure they'll add international destinations eventually. Also a shame that Southwest still won't cooperate with any of these guys. I guess it's a rational decision on their part: be cheapest most of the time and hope that people won't bother to compare your fares to others.

marquis 15y ago
Yes, the first site that has JetBlue and SouthWest comparisons with the major airlines will have my traffic. I usually prefer to travel on price when it's not business so I love how Google has made this clear - that's my core problem with Hipmunk and I'm not sure why they don't just tell you the cheapest days to fly, like Kayak at least tries to. I also like how http://skyscanner.com http://skyscanner.com does it.
- goldfish 15y ago
  We (Hipmunk) have Jetblue, and so does Kayak and Google. We also let you figure out the cheapest days to fly: just click "I'm flexible."
  - hugh3 15y ago
    Good to hear. You also have one killer competitive advantage: an adorable logo.
  - harisenbon 15y ago
    Thanks for that tip! i've been looking for a service like that, but I never saw that link on hipmunk. Thanks for a great service.
  - listic 15y ago
    Maybe you should have "I'm flexible" on the results page, too? Skyscanner does. I would not find it without your hint.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

nubela 15y ago

Sorry, locations outside the U.S. are currently not supported. -- Ugh, lame.

27182818284 15y ago

Faster than Hipmunk, but can't do international flights yet.

cletus 15y ago

Internally, this has been around for a little while (disclaimer: I work for Google but not on anything related to this). What continues to impress me about Google is: 1. Just how quickly this was built (really, it was quick); and 2. Google wants you to use our services because they're compelling not because we don't give you any other choice (ie "Don't be evil"). Sure there are limits to what it currently does but I think you'll see it rapidly iterate.

maddalab 15y ago
ITA Software, acquired by Google in the last year, has always had this functionality available at [1]. In fact it is more full featured with ability to search international flight and a number of other options. There are even apps for iphone and android. This functionality pales in comparison to what is available there. I do not see the point of building this rather than have people use what is better and currently available. [1] http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ http://matrix.itasoftware.com/
- tonfa 15y ago
  How fast is Matrix? How does it scale?
revorad 15y ago
It says "Ads" on the booking options. What's the business model?
bradleyland 15y ago
Let's be honest. Google wants us to use their services because the better they understand us, the better they can advertise to us. That's the profit model at Google. I don't begrudge them for it either. You've got to turn a profit if you want to keep the lights on. I don't mean any offense, but the "Don't be evil" mantra is growing a bit tired. Evil is a strong word, and "not being evil" is a pretty low bar, IMO.
- yanw 15y ago
  They specify what they mean by "evil": http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/googevil http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/googevil

revorad 15y ago

In true Google style, they are focusing on speed, with a minimal UI.

r00fus 15y ago
Unexpected was the minimal data part... They have a short look-ahead and don't work with any international destinations. The folks who are most interested in this app are the ones who are most likely interested in the above two points.

geuis 15y ago

General question here. Almost all flight search sites default the search dates to about 3 weeks out. Now, I find this annoying but I'm wondering if its done because there is statistical evidence that most customers search in that range of time, or rather if it's just what someone thought would be a good idea by "following their intuition".

roc 15y ago
The rule of thumb that I've heard was that anything about a month out represented the 'normal' price. If you're buying a ticket for a flight less than a month away, the prices start to rise dramatically as the flight date draws nearer. But if you're buying a ticket for a flight more than a month away, it's more-or-less the same price as a flight that's a month away. [1] So absent any other information, the 'normal' price can help people ballpark costs more quickly, something I'd expect to be statistically more common than actually searching to book a specific flight on specific dates. [1] With exceptions for destinations with very defined/popular seasons, holidays and things like that.
dot 15y ago
I guess Google will be able to fill this automatically by checking your Google calendar for recently added events in other cities. :)
smackfu 15y ago
It seems like the default search is just for people who want to see "about how much is a ticket between X and Y?" Anyone doing a real search has real dates. By placing the time frame a few weeks out, you avoid including very expensive last minute tickets, and do a better job getting general flight prices.
goldfish 15y ago
It depends on the kind of traveler (business travelers have shorter lead-time, leisure travelers have longer), but 3 weeks is a reasonable guess—probably on the shorter end—for what Google customers will be looking for.
geuis 15y ago

antimora 15y ago

Is it me, or that app is super fast?

smackfu 15y ago
It probably is caching data from other people's searches, similar to what Kayak does. This is cool right up until you try to actually book a flight and it sells out or goes up in price dramatically.
- laconian 15y ago
  Wait, is this actually the case with the Google product?
LogicX 15y ago
Yes, you're looking at ITA's InstaSearch product, which delivers near real-time results, compared to the traditional QPX product. There were many articles about Google's acquisition of ITA, and various stipulations around InstaSearch: "As a condition of the deal, Google must continue to license ITA's QPX software for airfare websites on "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms" through 2016. And it must commit to continued investment in ITA's QPX software and in ITA's unreleased InstaSearch product, which aims to provide near instant airline fare quotes." http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/article/229401259 http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/article/22940... Disclosure: I worked for ITA until rumors of the acquisition.

reagan83 15y ago

Jesus, this amazing.

tonfa 15y ago

I love the scatter plot graph (with duration/price), it is so geeky :)

0x12 15y ago

It's only a problem for hipmunk as long as google doesn't 'retire' the project. Give it 6 months or so.

piyush_ranjan 15y ago
I agree. 6 months max

martingordon 15y ago

Looks nice and it has great potential, especially since it isn't cluttered with links to Expedia/Priceline like the others are. That said, I can't really use it until it supports multiple destinations/open jaw in a single search.

samstokes 15y ago

The (well-hidden) "Limits" widget is a very cool bit of visual / visceral UI design. Click the "scatter graph" button next to the Duration field and you get a scatter plot of duration against price for all the flights - which is useful data in itself - then you can drag a boundary around to set the maximum duration or price.

kingkilr 15y ago

Very nice, my only complaint is they don't have Southwest pricing. No one else does either, so Southwest continues to bring me to their site :)

zaggggg 15y ago
In addition, http://getawayfinder.southwest.com/ http://getawayfinder.southwest.com/ has been around for some time already.
iron_ball 15y ago
No one else does either, so I don't fly Southwest.

kellysutton 15y ago

"5 unknown price" Looks like it needs another QA pass.

mlinsey 15y ago
Were those Southwest flights? I think SWA doesn't let any of the aggregators display prices for their flights - I was pleasantly surprised that I saw Southwest flights at all.
- kellysutton 15y ago
  I was pointing out the obvious typo. It should read "5 unknown prices."

fmavituna 15y ago

Great implementation. Recently I've been playing with skyscanner and HipMunk. This will definitely replace them for me when international support arrives.

amirmc 15y ago

Just for some context, here's the previous HN discussion when Google announced their acquisition of ITA in July 2010. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1479107 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1479107

toot 15y ago

It's quite scary that a company like Google can come along and shit in a startup's cereal practically overnight. I know we were all rooting for The 'Munk, but it seems that Google's use of Price x Duration matrix effectively steals the thunder from Hipmunk's agony filter. I mean, it's not as if Google needs the affiliate revenue, and I bet the Hipmunk guys would have preferred it had Google decided to "organise the world's information" through an acquisition. I think I'd need a good cry if this happened to me :(

raldi 15y ago
It wasn't overnight. ITA has been doing flight search since forever. In fact, they even had the matrix UI before Hipmunk (though it wasn't featured as prominently): http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-company-that-HipMunk-copied-design-wise http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-company-that-HipMunk-copied...
goldfish 15y ago
No tears over here! We've known this was coming for almost a year—Google announced their ITA acquisition before we even launched. We've also been preparing some sweet responses :)
- revorad 15y ago
  Attaboy! Still rooting for you guys. You should add gigaballs of steel to the mascot.
- crenshaw 15y ago
  Nice. You have a lot of people on your side.

kiwidrew 15y ago

It’s rather powerful: as long as the origin airport is one of those shown on the map, and the destination airport is reachable via a domestic flight on one of the major airlines (AA, AS, B6, CO, DL, F9, UA, US), the search results come back instantaneously. Multiple origins and destinations (up to five of each) are supported as well: http://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=LAX,SFO,SEA,LAS,DEN;t=ORD,BOS,MIA,ATL,CLT;d=2011-10-10;r=2011-10-14;mp=1300;md=690 http://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=LAX,SFO,SEA,LAS,DEN;... And the results still come back immediately! Including the three-month chart of prices. This leads me to believe that Google/ITA has precomputed all of these results, and is simply serving these results out of a cache of some sort. That would explain why they are only offering a limited set of origin airports at this time: it probably takes an incredible amount of computing power and storage space to pre-calculate all of the possible results. Colour me impressed.

stingraycharles 15y ago
Interesting. That makes me wonder: would that really be the optimal approach? Google is able to return search results for previously unsearched queries nearly instantaneously too, so I'm wondering whether it's really a cache that's serving those queries. Would some sort of graph-based index be possible in this situation?
- kiwidrew 15y ago
  Yes, using a shortest path tree [1], it is possible to efficiently (for some definition of "efficient") calculate the best path from a single origin node to all destination nodes in the graph. Dijkstra's algorithm is the standard implementation, but is not very amenable to parallel processing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Google has a framework called Pregel [2] which does parallel graph processing. Their research paper outlines how it can be used to calculate a single-source shortest path tree (in section 5.2) in reasonable time. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortest_path_tree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortest_path_tree [2] http://www-bd.lip6.fr/ens/grbd2011/extra/SIGMOD10_pregel.pdf http://www-bd.lip6.fr/ens/grbd2011/extra/SIGMOD10_pregel.pdf
- noduerme 15y ago

tamersalama 15y ago

This is just beautiful. Data matrix is innovative, UI is out of the way, slick and to the point interface, and it even takes you to the correct 3rd party booking pages. I can't wait till this is implemented in Canada. Kayak beware!

jonjamz 15y ago
> Kayak beware! This definitely looks better than Kayak. ^_^

badclient 15y ago

When I want to do a flight search, I don't usually think of a map.

markmccraw 15y ago

If I were expedia, orbitz, priceline, travelocity, kayak, hipmunk. etc. I'd be very very afraid. Sure, google won't actually do the sales, but they are linking direct to airline websites for now. Also this doesn't exist for hotels. Yet. The odds that in 1 year that any of those sites have a better UI or superior search capabilities than Google is low. So, what will they bring to the table? Also, what's up with all these people saying that it's so limited because it doesn't do international and such. It seems very obvious that this thing will get better and better and like others have said, eventually end up on top of the search page. This is assuming it gains traction quickly and doesn't get nuked.

adaml_623 15y ago

My First Impression: No international flights yet: Fail but not surprising That's okay I want to fly from NY to Vegas next year. No flights for April 2012: Fail that was not expected. I don't really understand why Google launches stuff like this when it has a lovely user interface but is a bit halfbaked in terms of the data that they've put in. I guess I'll go back in a years time when they remind me about it.

modeless 15y ago
Many airlines don't allow you to book tickets more than 6 months in advance at their own websites. I don't think it's surprising that Google didn't prioritize 6+ month advance ticket purchases.

RossM 15y ago

Just the other day I was wondering "why isn't there a flight option in Maps?", well here you go then, there soon will be.

awj 15y ago

To me, that map seems like a very confusing bit of UI. The cities themselves are really tiny interaction points, I'm a relatively experienced FPS gamer and hitting those points accurately involves more fumbling than it should. You cannot drag departure/arrival pins. Streetview kind of taught me that this should be a mechanism for manipulating this sort of location reference. The big one, though, is that layovers are not reflected on the map. Granted, it may push me slightly towards more expensive flights, but I would appreciate the ability to see the grid of ugliness and waiting I'm buying into to get that super cheap ticket. I don't think that map as it is now is worth the screen real estate.

rhygar 15y ago
The whole thing has "designed by an engineer" all over it. From hidden UI that reveals itself by clicking/hovering on various elements, to the entire process being limited to one screen which various pop-out elements and transformations. There is little consistency in the design, and poor or no usage of contrast to separate information visually. When clicking the large blue button to the right of a flight, several rows of return flights drop down below that. The only visual distinction between these specific sub-rows and the other departing flights below is a thin blue/gray border on the sides. Going from A to B is called an "Outbound flight", while going from B to A is called a "Return flight". Copy is very important in UI design. It should be outbound/inbound or depart/return, not some mix of different terminology. Durations are always "-- Xh -->". What is the point of the arrow if it is always pointing to the right? Why is the duration a lighter shade than the rest of the text? The left column is a Gawker/Gizmodo style static column that locks in place when scrolling down. The Google search results page doesn't do that. These are basics, and a company the size of Google with as many employees as it has should be able to get these things right.
- waqf 15y ago
  Outbound/return is standard terminology all over the travel industry. Including in UK and US, and for trains and for planes: I'm surprised you're not familiar with it. "Depart" means something different: it refers to the beginning of each leg of the journey. Its opposite is "arrive". So you might have an outbound leg which departs from LAX and arrives in SFO, and then a return leg which departs from SFO and arrives in LAX.

DevX101 15y ago

If your startup is involved with search aimed at the consumer market, watch out...Google is coming. In a few weeks/months Google will be featuring this search result when you type "nyc to sfo" and take a big bite out of orbitz, kayak, and whoever's lunch that's in this space. EDIT: The counterargument to this, is that orbitz, kayak, and friends are some of the heaviest purchasers of PPC ads. So Google be at risk of cannibalizing if they push this too hard.

zitterbewegung 15y ago
The counterargument to your counterargument is that google could start taking over what they cannibalize and make more money directly.
- andrenotgiant 15y ago
  Exactly, it's simple economics: If Orbitz et al. get $5 per Airline ticket sold, they can only afford to pay Google up to $4.99 for the click. Google can take the $5 from the Airlines and laugh all the way to the bank.
  - Djehngo 15y ago
    The issue is that in order to do that google would have to only list flights from airlines that are willing to pay them $5. If the airline refuses to pay and google doesn't display their flights then their results are incomplete. The airlines will probably understand that google wants to be able to list their flights and will negotiate harder because of it.
    - polshaw 15y ago
      This is a dangerous game however; the flip-side is that the airline has more potential profit to lose by not having google to sell their flights for them.
John212 15y ago
> If your startup is involved with search aimed at the consumer market, watch out...Google is coming. Possibly... However sites like hipmunk will be used as a comparison in so many press articles and blog posts when google starts pushing this. Many start ups have won against google. Google Notepad & Evernote, Google Wave & Twitter, Google Ride Finder & Uber etc... .. but I still wouldn't want to be in this space right now.

emehrkay 15y ago

Interface was confusing at first: you click the "x from $xxx" then you choose a return flight by clicking the sub="x from $xxx" with the time you'd like to return. Then you can book. This is cool though

stevenp 15y ago

Honestly, the lack of a good API by any provider is one of the biggest barriers to entry in this space. I wonder if the Hipmunk guys might release one? I'd be thrilled to send affiliate traffic to the first company that makes good on this.

JoshTriplett 15y ago

Not bad, but hipmunk's visualization seems far far better than Google's tables. The graphical representation of the flight path seems nice, as does the highlighting of cities involved, but that doesn't actually give me information I need to make a decision; Hipmunk's time-oriented chart of departures, arrivals, and layovers tells me exactly what I need to know to book a flight.

kongqiu 15y ago
Exactly. This would intimidate my aunt; Hipmunk would amaze her.
- kn0thing 15y ago
  I hope she'd like the chipmunk, too!

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

jeffem 15y ago

They must be accessing prior flight search history in some way or they made a really lucky guess with their default selections. I've recently searched for flights on Expedia and Southwest (I don't think I've visited anywhere else). Google already had those same dates and cities selected by default.

splish 15y ago

Unless I'm missing something fairly obvious, they might have missed something pretty big - is there any way to book a one way flight?

boyd 15y ago
Agreed -- couldn't find it in the first 30 seconds, which is sort of a red flag...

tedkalaw 15y ago

Is there anyway to do one-way flights? I really like it so far but cannot for the life of me figure out if one-way is possible.

billboebel 15y ago
I can't find it either. I would have actually used it today since I found it right as I was about to search for a flight on Kayak... but w/o one-way I can't use it.

mcdowall 15y ago

I had always imagined they would try to dabble in flight search but always assumed the sheer volume of their travel ppc clients would restrict it. Big revenue gamble.

dhruvbird 15y ago

This had to happen sooner than later after the ITA aquisition. I wonder why it took them so long.

faulkner 15y ago

Decent initial release, but I wish the search was more flexible. My common use case is "I will spend $X to go anywhere for under Y days any time in the future" and I haven't found a service that makes this easy. Kayak's "explore" page is the closest I've found, but they rarely have the cheapest flights listed and have no way to set duration. Has anyone found a better solution?

rebelnz 15y ago
These guys almost fulfil that requirement - I use their service pretty regularly. http://adioso.com/ http://adioso.com/

angus77 15y ago

We have detected that you are using an unsupported web browser. We support Firefox 3.5 or later, Chrome, Safari 4 or later, or Internet Explorer 8 or later. ?!? I'm using the Android browser!

rufo 15y ago

Completely useless for me. Doesn't find a single flight out of ROC.

pumainmotion 15y ago

As is evident from some of the comments here, the map and the search bar on top are totally extraneous to the basic task that the user wishes to perform. The absolute barebones should be shown: Starting location, Destination, Dates. And then maybe a less noisy version of the price-points plot from which one can just drag and drop certain options into a bucket for comparison. The fact that so much scrolling needs to be done to even get a basic understanding of the results means this needs to be reworked.

stevoski 15y ago

I try to get a flight from Frankfurt - the 9th busiest airport in the world. - and I get "Unavailable". Post this again when I can actually use it.

nlh 15y ago
When you search for a destination airport outside of the US, you get a very clear message: "Sorry, locations outside the U.S. are currently not supported." They're taking the release-early-iterate-often approach to this new service, which means that they're not going to make everyone happy immediately. Rather than dismiss this new service just because it doesn't fit your specific use case right now, think about this from a different (i.e. hacker) perspective -- this is a cool new service that will obviously become even cooler as it gets more advanced.
- stevoski 15y ago
  I agree totally...just pointing out that the site is useless to us living outside of the USA. Hard to get excited about something that is, from a European resident's perspective, useless.

marcamillion 15y ago

This is one of those late nights at Hipmunk. Good luck guys!

kin 15y ago

My eyes dilated when using the auto price feature. Also the speed and ease of adjusting the dates by a day is impressive.

iskander 15y ago

Any idea when they expand beyond the US?

iradik 15y ago

I think they will integrate this with google maps and give around the world directions. Pretty cool.

ofca 15y ago

hipmunk, hold on to your 'nackers :)

pmorici 15y ago

I don't understand why anyone would use a federated flight search when looking for a domestic flight in the US. None of the major airlines come close to Southwest in terms of price or hassle free travel and none of the flight search engines include price information for Southwest.

T-hawk 15y ago
Perhaps for the still-common case of flying to an airport where Southwest doesn't go? Southwest gets to be cheap in significant part by only flying routes with enough demand to fill a 737. And on rare occasions another airline does beat Southwest's price. Sometimes I see flights in and out of JFK turn up cheaper on Delta.

eren-tantekin 15y ago

Sorry, locations outside the U.S. are currently not supported :/

drallison 15y ago

Wow ... but then I am not really sure it meets my needs. For one thing, it does not recognize may local airport and keeps wanting me to fly out of another airport a good 4 hour drive away! And while it is good at displaying cost differentials for different destinations it does not seem to do as well for the same destination at different times with different carriers. Still, it is interesting.

mahmud 15y ago

U.S. only.

esutton 15y ago

what will be a game changing tool, and something befitting the resources of google, would be to pair flights together that are cheaper than what is offered by the airline. for instance: flying from NY to LA. Airlines sell this route non stop, or through one of their hubs. But imagine if a flight search can figure out that a oneway flight from ny to new orleans on Delta and than a flight from new orleans on AA, had a low layover and was significantly cheaper than the published routes. The problem is that as this expands to more cities and takes more stops, you end up hitting an NP problem.

kiwidrew 15y ago
It's unlikely that the Delta fare from NYC to MSY and the American fare from MSY to LAX permit end-on-end combination with each other, so it would have to be issued as two separate tickets. What happens if your Delta flight to New Orleans is delayed and you miss your connecting flight to Los Angeles on American? Neither carrier is going to offer you any compensation, and your travel insurance probably has a clause which excludes misconnections caused by an airline's late arrival. There are occasions when this strategy produces good results, however: last year I needed a last-minute one way flight from a small southeastern city (TYS / Knoxville) to San Francisco, and the fares were extremely high ($800+). But flights to Orlando were very cheap due to competition from low-cost leisure carriers, and the last-minute fares from Orlando (MCO) to San Francisco were quite reasonable. I booked, on a single ticket and flying on a single airline the entire way, TYS-IAD-MCO-IAD-DEN-SFO. This gave me a TYS-MCO fare plus an MCO-SFO fare, which was hundreds of dollars cheaper than the more direct TYS-DEN-SFO. At the time, saving money was a lot more important than getting to San Francisco a couple of hours earlier. A cunning plan that cannot fail! Except that I missed my first flight of the morning due to an overnight road closure that blocked my only way of leaving the house. By the time that I got to the airport, my originally booked flight had already left and I was faced with a very long wait for the next flight to IAD, which virtually guaranteed I wouldn't even make it to San Francisco that day. It was only through a combination of charisma and blind luck that I managed to convince the airline to reroute me direct through Denver, which is completely against company policy. They only charged me the $50 same-day standby fee. Needless to say, I would never sell that sort of a ticket to the general public. Far too many different ways in which things could go horribly wrong. It's also likely that the airlines would promptly revoke your ticketing privileges with them were they to discover you were routinely issuing these sorts of tickets.

samstave 15y ago

You know what would my make flights better (I travel a lot for work - but work out of my house and book a lot of my own travel) I want to be able to setup standard trips/itineraries and be able to single clik re-book them with simply a leave and return date. Further, I want the system to auto arrange for a cab/shuttle/uber to pick me up and take me to my destination. For example, I fly to LAX several times a month - Nome Alaska once a month, Soon it will be Dallas once a month - and various places in the bay area. If I can setup my "Visit LAX trip" with all my details and know that a car was waiting for me when I got to LAX to take me to my office/hotel and I didnt have to do anything other than click "Re-book LAX" that would save me so much time and hassle. I would setup my preferred airlines, times and seats (Virgin America etc...)

bengl3rt 15y ago
May I ask what you do, and how I might get into doing it? I am craving a job with > 0 travel...
- samstave 15y ago
  I am a healthcare consultant. I consult on new hospital builds and ensuring the organizations are prepared to get licensed and then move in.

retrofit_brain 15y ago

Wow what a relief to see they are dogfooding. This is built on GWT and the performance is kick ass.

jnw2 15y ago

I was under the impression that Amtrak from Newark Airport to 30th St Station in Philadelphia was available as an airline code share (and that train segment is fast enough that there's no good reason to get on a plane for Newark<->Philadelphia, even if you are connecting to another flight out of Newark), but I haven't figured out how to find such a code share with Google's flight search tools. (The governor of IL and the Chicago mayor also asked Amtrak to study how to extend some of the Amtrak routes to O'Hare, presumably to replace some ``commuter'' flights, and they wanted the study done by the end of this summer, but I haven't seen any evidence of the study being done yet.)

rickdale 15y ago

When are people going to stop solving this problem and start building super sonic airplanes like the concord? The airline industry moves backwards in technology and trying to build a flight search engine to wrap around it is really a band-aid to the real situation. If I could get to Vegas in half the time, or even a quarter of the time (currently takes 4 hours, could take 1 in supersonic jet) I would pay at least double price for a ticket, and I wouldnt even need a seat. My point is if you fly coach especially with Delta they treat you like a slave and stuff you with almost zero space to move (I am american, but not obese (5'9, 200lb). Forget flight search engines I can find a flight, make a me a faster more tolerable flight, you are friggin GOOGLE!

usaar333 15y ago
Drag (and hence power required) is roughly proportional to the square of the velocity. You want to go twice as fast? You better be willing to pay (at least) 4x the ticket price. And since most people want cheaper tickets over flight time, you'll have to pay even more to compensate for the lack of economies of scale. Computer efficiency still is rapidly moving up. Airplane efficiency is near its limits.

NuecadFoi 15y ago

Game over. Disclaimer: This is a throwaway account. I'm a person who has had a travel startup. I've decided to halt, once Google has finally acquired ITA Software. Travel is one of the world's largest industries (~5th), and online sales are its significant part (~10-30%, depending on the market), growing strongly. Online travel agencies (OTA) are among the few companies on web that get real money (~$150 per sale) from customers (it is relatively easy to make serious revenue). Online travel sales consist mostly of flight bookings, and hotel reservations. On these markets, there are roughly three categories of players. Airlines and hotels _provide_ the inventory, that is flights and hotel rooms. Computer reservations systems (GDS) _manage_ the inventory. Online travel agencies _sell_ the inventory. Specifically, there are thousands of airlines and hotels (e.g. Hyatt, Lufthansa). However, there are only three major GDS operators in the US and Europe (i.e. Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport), as well as only few big OTAs (i.e. Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, Hotels.com, and Opodo). Few decades ago, before Internet, airlines and hotels were unable to sell inventory on their own. It definitely takes more time to set up an office than a connection between two airports. Thus, it made sense to use travel agencies for this purpose. Over time, airlines and hotels became also unable to manage their inventory. Synchronization of reservations between thousands of third parties is a non-trivial task, not a core competency of involved companies. Thus, it made sense to use a middle man. That's what GDS systems do. They manage inventory, what includes reservations (PNR), its availability, prices, and exchanging data with others. As far as I know, right now, airlines and hotels pay them for the service, and for each reservation made (~few bucks). Internet has complicated things a bit. Travel agencies are no longer so vital, as both airlines and hotels are able (at least, they think so) to sell the inventory on their own. Unfortunately, they were too slow again, and OTAs has emerged meanwhile (Expedia), giving the second youth to GDS companies. The ecosystem is like an old marriage couple, although a threesome. Each party hat hates each other, but there's no other way around. To oversimplify a bit, OTAs have _customers_ (traffic), GDS systems _manage_ the inventory (with airlines, hotels, and OTAs) and both airlines and hotels _provide_ the inventory, after all. From time to time there's an affair. Low-cost airlines try to distrupt the market by selling tickets so cheaply partially because they sell them directly. Major OTAs, like Expedia, partially grow to a GDS category. Some airlines or hotel chains withdraw from GDS systems, and return eventually with negiotiated better fees. However, it's mostly business as usual. Today, if you want to start an online travel agency you have to speak with a GDS company. Depending on your market, it might be Amadeus, Sabre or Travelport. After a long selling process, you get access to the system, and you can start selling the reservations. What's important, though, nearly all systems used today were created a decade, or two, ago. As core competency of GDS companies is in selling, then, as far as I know, they outsource the software evelopment to third parties, and it's not that easy to innovate on a critical part of the world's infrastructure. What you end up with, then, is an access to an undocumented API that lets you to search, and manage your reservations. Insiders are used to the quirks, like waiting few seconds until you get the response, random issues, or hinting the system so you get a better response than others. Importantly, you're actively discoured to cache the data, as the prices change rather frequently. The critical part here is search. It's a mathematically non-trivial problem to very quickly find rates within thousands of connections, definitely beyond technical know-how of GDS operators, airlines and hotels. ITA Software has managed to get access to the inventory and while, as far as I know, they do not sell resevations, they've created a much better (faster) search. Meanwhile, few years ago, metasearches (e.g. Kayak, Hipmunk) emerged. Smart folks have realized that the competition is on price, customers look for a single place to compare prices, and operate under assumption that what really counts is traffic. From both customers and metasearch perspective, it does not make that big difference where do they buy the reservation from, an OTA or directly from an airline. So, here we are today. As a beggining travel agency, you likely have to pay annually for access, and for each request made, especially if you exceed the quota negotiated with the GDS company. Few years ago you were able to make profit by incurring a transaction fee to each ticket sold, but now transaction fees are nearly non-existent, and it's more frequent to rely on provisions from GDS companies, and, sometimes, airlines. What's your competetive advantage? Basically, you cannot provide much better product than your competitors, as everyone relies on the similar legacy GDS system that returns the flight details rather slowly. Most of the time, only choices are either to show the results a bit differently, or bet on more trustful brand. The focus is on efficiency. Profit per ticket is so slim, so cost of customers acquisitions is what really matters. OTAs, metasearches and, increasingly, airlines, together with hotels, master SEM, SEO, and other forms of advertisement (newsletters, banners). They live and die by the numbers. If you've figured out how to scalably make $1 more profit on each reservation made, you're covered for some time. The novel methods are, obviously, eventually realized by others, too. In this race to the bottom there's one clear winner. Google's AdWords is a major source of traffic for all parties, and I bet that they already make the biggest profit off each reservation made. Once Google has acquired ITA Software, they now have both traffic and the inventory.

frankiewarren 15y ago

This makes a ton of sense to me. Users already trust Google with search and connecting people with airlines has baked-in revenue. This also has tremendous advertising potential. Imagine if local restaurants could target ads at people who will be traveling to the area in the next three months.

joeyj01 15y ago

It is amazing! I hope outside U.S service will come soon and calculate flights globally.

xedarius 15y ago

Please build this in Europe, searching for flights is so painful. I hope you're looking at this web site Expedia!

skylar 15y ago

We built this at Yahoo! in summer 2007 after the FareChase acquisition. Took about a week or so to prototype, and a couple months to offer various filter/search criteria and prepare for launch. With access the good flight data APIs it's a pretty simple app. Of course for us it was never allowed to launch. Glad to see Google was finally able to push something like this. Main feature missing that Y! Faremaps had is the ability to specify a span of time in which you wanted to travel and the cheapest trips in that timeframe were shown. Also, you could search "weekends only" in that timeframe.

supahfly_remix 15y ago

I don't see any Southwest or JetBlue airlines flights listed. Both usually have very competitive pricing on some routes.

JohannTh 15y ago

I work for Dohop (www.dohop.com), a direct competitor of Google's new flight thing. We have been worried about Google's entrance into the field for a while, but after today we are breathing easier. No international? No one-way? I know Google will change this, but why put out such a wildly underwhelming product? And finally, since they are basing the whole thing on ITA anyway, we don't expect them to do anything Kayak isn't already doing.