5 ms·

I've been using Google Flights since the middle of last year and love it. However, as a frequent traveler for business/conferences, I think there are some thing

by jxf 12y ago

I've been using Google Flights since the middle of last year and love it. However, as a frequent traveler for business/conferences, I think there are some things people should be aware of: * Google's data seems to be not as fresh as Kayak or Hipmunk's is. There have been multiple times when I've tried to book a flight via GF only to be told that there were no seats left when I arrive on the airline's page. I suspect part of the greatly improved speed comes at the cost of aggressive caching that runs a risk of things being out of date. * Google's data is all over the map on pricing. Very frequently the airline's price will be much cheaper than GF. And more than once (especially on United or American Airlines) I've noticed that if I book directly through an airline over a VPN, I save several hundred bucks versus if I click through from Google Flights or Kayak. Conversely, sometimes GF is less expensive and when I land on the airline's page it's more expensive. I think the best thing to use it for is route discoverability: which kind of planes and which airlines fly to which locations, on which days at which times? It's also great for doing complex open-jaw routes or hidden-city fares -- and since those routes don't change very often, the data is more likely to be accurate.

zatkin 12y ago
Which VPN gets you the best deals? Also, do you book on Tuesdays?
- esMazer 12y ago
  I would be interested on this as well!
- jxf 12y ago
  I only have one VPN, GoldenFrog's VyprVPN service. Sorry, I didn't intend to suggest that I was running multiple VPNs. I haven't experimented extensively with things, but usually setting my exit server to a random country on the other side of the planet (e.g. Malaysia) has yielded consistently good results. And yes, I do tend to book on Tuesdays.
- ThatAdamGuy 12y ago
  Assuming you're on google.com/flights, I'm fairly sure that using a VPN, changing your IP, flushing your cookies... none of that should change the availability and pricing you see on Flights. And no, don't bother trying to time your bookings. It's kinda like the stock market; trying to beat the market, er, optimize your flights purchase time is likely to lead to sorrow and regret. From the research our Google Flights team did recently, we found that if you wait a week, on average you're gonna pay more for the same flight. And no, we didn't see any universal discount on Tuesdays, either ;)
  - low_battery 12y ago
    Actually If you save your itineraries you can see daily price change graph in saved flights view (star icon). A recent feature, small but interesting.
    - ThatAdamGuy 12y ago
      ah, good point, low_battery; I like that feature, too!
lpgauth 12y ago
I'm surprised about your data issues since Google owns most of it (from their acquisition of ITA software). https://www.itasoftware.com/ https://www.itasoftware.com/
- what_ever 12y ago
  AFAIK, ITA is the major provider for this data but not the only provider.
spinchange 12y ago
I've had nearly the identical experience with it on all counts. By and large, I am a huge and loyal user of it as well. It seems I've had the most changes in fare price or availability when identifying flights on United specifically, more so than any other airline, in my experience. That being said, it's still pretty infrequent given the volume of airfare we've booked through it for our people over the last 2 years or so. Another thing I would add is that in connecting flight situations, it will occasionally present an itinerary that's technically possible to make, but not always entirely practical or ideal. (e.g. the window between flights is really narrow, not leaving much margin of error for flight delays, getting to another gate/terminal, etc., if not near the one you arrive at.) All that being said, it really does work pretty great and we prefer using it to any of the other travel sites. I would love to know why there are occasional fare discrepancies though... as far as I know google treats the click-through to the carriers' sites like an ad click, so I don't think Google is "marking it up," rather, the carriers are in some cases pricing based on the referer link or something. It can also be a demand pricing issue too, as the flight fills up, I suppose. My understanding is that Google is basically just the informational conduit between the user and the airline so it's weird that there are occasional price discrepancies.
- ThatAdamGuy 12y ago
  spinchange, thanks for the love! Short answer re price discrepancies: it's complicated. It's absolutely in our interest and the airlines' interest to get pricing 100% right, and we do work really hard to eval and improve on this. One situation that can happen is that an airline has, say, 3 seats remaining at one fare and 1 seat remaining at a cheaper fare; when you selected the flights or immediately before, that 1 seat was still available, but by the time you click through, it's not, so you get the pricing for the fare with 3 seats left. One of the things that's amazed me in my flights education after joining the team is just how super-dynamic pricing is. No, to my knowledge it's not based on your referrer or cookies or anything like that ;). I'm just talking -- person-independent -- pricing from hour to hour. On a related note, I used to think that airline pricing was pretty capricious and random; now I realize that the airlines hire some of the smartest folks to develop pricing strategies, and nothing is left to chance ;).
fireworks10 12y ago
I use http://www.optifly.com/ http://www.optifly.com/ for airline route discovery.
salemh 12y ago
My own very small data point is booking a few flights for our Executive (2013, former company), and my own (recent 2015) flights, which had the correct flight time/date on Google Flights, but when "ordering" from the sight, were munged into different dates. Booked all flights incorrectly :)
rivo 12y ago
The big trend in the airline industry is to customize prices and availabilities to each individual request. Your location (IP address), your frequent flyer status (if logged in), the competitor's current prices, the distribution channel (e.g. web or travel agent, GDS) will all have an influence on what is presented to you. Meta search engines have had a difficult time reporting accurate fares even in the past when it was much simpler. In the future, it'll be almost impossible.

by jxf 12y ago

zatkin 12y ago

Which VPN gets you the best deals? Also, do you book on Tuesdays?

esMazer 12y ago
I would be interested on this as well!
jxf 12y ago
I only have one VPN, GoldenFrog's VyprVPN service. Sorry, I didn't intend to suggest that I was running multiple VPNs. I haven't experimented extensively with things, but usually setting my exit server to a random country on the other side of the planet (e.g. Malaysia) has yielded consistently good results. And yes, I do tend to book on Tuesdays.
ThatAdamGuy 12y ago
Assuming you're on google.com/flights, I'm fairly sure that using a VPN, changing your IP, flushing your cookies... none of that should change the availability and pricing you see on Flights. And no, don't bother trying to time your bookings. It's kinda like the stock market; trying to beat the market, er, optimize your flights purchase time is likely to lead to sorrow and regret. From the research our Google Flights team did recently, we found that if you wait a week, on average you're gonna pay more for the same flight. And no, we didn't see any universal discount on Tuesdays, either ;)
- low_battery 12y ago
  Actually If you save your itineraries you can see daily price change graph in saved flights view (star icon). A recent feature, small but interesting.
  - ThatAdamGuy 12y ago
    ah, good point, low_battery; I like that feature, too!

lpgauth 12y ago

I'm surprised about your data issues since Google owns most of it (from their acquisition of ITA software). https://www.itasoftware.com/ https://www.itasoftware.com/

what_ever 12y ago
AFAIK, ITA is the major provider for this data but not the only provider.

spinchange 12y ago

I've had nearly the identical experience with it on all counts. By and large, I am a huge and loyal user of it as well. It seems I've had the most changes in fare price or availability when identifying flights on United specifically, more so than any other airline, in my experience. That being said, it's still pretty infrequent given the volume of airfare we've booked through it for our people over the last 2 years or so. Another thing I would add is that in connecting flight situations, it will occasionally present an itinerary that's technically possible to make, but not always entirely practical or ideal. (e.g. the window between flights is really narrow, not leaving much margin of error for flight delays, getting to another gate/terminal, etc., if not near the one you arrive at.) All that being said, it really does work pretty great and we prefer using it to any of the other travel sites. I would love to know why there are occasional fare discrepancies though... as far as I know google treats the click-through to the carriers' sites like an ad click, so I don't think Google is "marking it up," rather, the carriers are in some cases pricing based on the referer link or something. It can also be a demand pricing issue too, as the flight fills up, I suppose. My understanding is that Google is basically just the informational conduit between the user and the airline so it's weird that there are occasional price discrepancies.

ThatAdamGuy 12y ago
spinchange, thanks for the love! Short answer re price discrepancies: it's complicated. It's absolutely in our interest and the airlines' interest to get pricing 100% right, and we do work really hard to eval and improve on this. One situation that can happen is that an airline has, say, 3 seats remaining at one fare and 1 seat remaining at a cheaper fare; when you selected the flights or immediately before, that 1 seat was still available, but by the time you click through, it's not, so you get the pricing for the fare with 3 seats left. One of the things that's amazed me in my flights education after joining the team is just how super-dynamic pricing is. No, to my knowledge it's not based on your referrer or cookies or anything like that ;). I'm just talking -- person-independent -- pricing from hour to hour. On a related note, I used to think that airline pricing was pretty capricious and random; now I realize that the airlines hire some of the smartest folks to develop pricing strategies, and nothing is left to chance ;).

fireworks10 12y ago

I use http://www.optifly.com/ http://www.optifly.com/ for airline route discovery.

salemh 12y ago

My own very small data point is booking a few flights for our Executive (2013, former company), and my own (recent 2015) flights, which had the correct flight time/date on Google Flights, but when "ordering" from the sight, were munged into different dates. Booked all flights incorrectly :)

rivo 12y ago

The big trend in the airline industry is to customize prices and availabilities to each individual request. Your location (IP address), your frequent flyer status (if logged in), the competitor's current prices, the distribution channel (e.g. web or travel agent, GDS) will all have an influence on what is presented to you. Meta search engines have had a difficult time reporting accurate fares even in the past when it was much simpler. In the future, it'll be almost impossible.