Taking Flight with Google Flights: Tips for Finding Your Dream Trip on a Budget

Taking Flight with Google Flights: Tips for Finding Your Dream Trip on a Budget - Set Flexible Dates to See a Broader Range of Fares

One of the best ways to score a great deal on Google Flights is to set flexible travel dates. This opens up your options dramatically and allows you to see a much wider range of fares. Unlike old school travel agents who could only present a handful of itineraries, Google Flights lets you efficiently scan hundreds of date combinations at lightning speed.

I always start my search by leaving the dates completely open. Then I use the flexible dates calendar tool to toggle through various departure and return options across a 2 to 3 week window. The calendar view color codes days by price, making it easy to spot outliers. I’ve often found crazy low fares by being open to flying on off-peak days like Tuesdays or Wednesdays rather than just weekends.

Don’t let your initial flight search box limit you. I recently helped my friend plan a trip to Hawaii. She only put in 7 days in mid-March. Prices were astronomical, over $800 roundtrip from Los Angeles. I convinced her to expand her flexible dates to all of February and March. Lo and behold, we found $350 roundtrip flights by traveling in late February instead.

The same principle applies for the length of trip. Google Flights lets you easily adjust the number of nights and visualizes how price changes. I’ve saved hundreds of dollars just by staying an extra day or two. Airlines use complex algorithms that price shorter getaways higher than longer vacations.

Of course, flexible dates won’t work for every kind of trip. Visiting family for Thanksgiving or a wedding obviously locks you into set travel. But for general leisure trips, why limit yourself? Saving 30%, 50% or even 70% is possible if your dates are negotiable.

Taking Flight with Google Flights: Tips for Finding Your Dream Trip on a Budget - Use the Explorer Tool to Find the Cheapest Destinations

One of my favorite hidden gems in Google Flights is the Explorer tool. This allows you to easily search for the cheapest destinations from your home airport without having to input specific dates or places. I find it invaluable for discovering new bucket list trips on a budget.

To use Explorer, simply open Google Flights and click on the Explore destinations link next to the main search box. You can then select your departure airport and length of stay. The tool will instantly return an interactive map populated with pins for destinations organized by continent.

Hover over each pin to see the average price of flights for your trip length. Click into a pin and Google Flights will pull up the cheapest dates to fly to that destination based on your flexible search criteria.

I’m based in Los Angeles, so I recently used Explorer to look for the cheapest places to visit from LAX in March for 7 nights. At first glance, the cheapest pins were all over the U.S. and Mexico - Phoenix for $81, Dallas for $84, Puerto Vallarta for $105.

But digging deeper, I found some shockingly cheap flights to farther flung places like Lima, Peru for $347 and Dublin for $367 by leveraging Explorer’s flexible dates calendar. These turned out to be 40-50% cheaper than average prices. Without the tool, I may have never thought to broadly search flights to Europe or South America.

The key to getting the most out of Explorer is applying filters to home in on your perfect parameters. You can filter by region, estimated price range, and type of destination (beach, city, etc). This prevents information overload.

For instance, filtering to only beach destinations under $500 surfaced Costa Rica, Belize and several Caribbean islands as affordable options for my dates. Exploring city trips under $600 showed deals to Madrid, Lisbon, Munich, and Edinburgh popping up.

Beyond just price, review the Google Flights Explore grid view to see valuable data like average temperature and precipitation. This helps you choose places with ideal weather. You can also toggle the map to show destinations by geographic proximity rather than price.

Taking Flight with Google Flights: Tips for Finding Your Dream Trip on a Budget - Try Nearby Airports to Uncover Hidden Deals

Trying nearby alternate airports is one of my go-to Google Flights tricks for unlocking hidden deals. Most travelers just lazily search for flights from their closest major airport without considering if a small regional airport could offer massive savings. I live in Los Angeles near LAX, but have found tickets 30-60% cheaper by looking at flights from nearby Long Beach, Burbank, Orange County and even San Diego airports.

This added flexibility is easy with Google Flights. After entering my origin and destination city, I expand the “Nearby airports” section under the search fields. Google will automatically populate options within a reasonable driving radius. You can add up to 10 nearby airports to evaluate side-by-side.

Next I check “See flights from all nearby airports” then run my search. The results will clearly differentiate which flights are from my original airport vs. alternate choices, making comparison easy. I can also further filter the list by airport.

The key is Google Flights opens up visibility into pricing differences you’d never see searching one airport at a time on an airline website or even other meta search engines like Expedia. I love discovering oddities like how a flight from Dallas to New York costs $250 from DFW but only $150 out of Love Field twenty miles away.

My favorite example was a couple years ago when I was planning a trip to Hawaii. Flights from LAX were about $500. Out of curiosity, I added in Orange County's John Wayne Airport 50 miles away as a nearby alternate. Shockingly, I found $350 fares on the exact same routes I was seeing for $500 at LAX! This wasn't a budget airline either - it was my preferred carrier United.

Of course, the tradeoff is you'll need to factor in ground transportation to the alternate airport. Using the OC airport example, I saved $150 after accounting for gas and parking costs. For shorter flights, the time savings flying from my main LAX airport outweighs any small price differences from alternate airports. But for longer trips, I've routinely saved hundreds of dollars that make the extra driving worthwhile.

Pro tip: pay attention to the airline operating your flight from the alternate airport. If it's the same as the one from your main airport, you should be fine booking an upcoming connection separately. But if the alternate airport flight is on a regional subsidiary, make sure to book the entire itinerary together, otherwise your connection may not be guaranteed.

Taking Flight with Google Flights: Tips for Finding Your Dream Trip on a Budget - Leverage Google's Price Tracking to Get the Best Fare

One of my favorite time-saving features in Google Flights is price tracking. This eliminates the need to constantly re-check fares to see if they’ve dropped. With a simple click, Google will monitor prices and proactively notify you if there’s a change.

After searching for a flight, toggle on the “Track prices” switch next to your chosen itinerary. You can track up to 10 flight options simultaneously either by selecting the boxes next to additional results or using the gray tracking icon.

Once tracking is activated, you’ll see a running tally of how many times Google has checked each flight. They claim to check up to six times per day. You’ll also get a graph showing historical pricing trends and fare predictions. This helps visualize if prices are stable, rising, or dropping.

Now the magic happens behind the scenes. Google’s algorithms use machine learning to monitor billions of flight prices and predict when sales may hit. You just sit back and wait for their email alert that a tracked flight has changed or dropped by a significant amount.

I love how Google doesn’t waste my time with incremental $10-20 price moves. They intelligently filter alerts to only notify for meaningful discounts. I’ve saved hundreds by acting fast when Google tipped me off to major sales.

For example, last fall Google notified me that $900 roundtrip tickets from LA to Barcelona I was tracking had suddenly dropped to $650, almost 30% off! Had I not been using price tracking, I would’ve missed the 24 hour fare sale.

You can also configure custom price drop alerts tailored to your budget. Simply click the “Set price alert” link when signed into Google and enter your target fare. You’ll be notified if prices reach your threshold.

Beyond flights, Google’s price tracking works for hotels too! I use it to monitor rates at dream properties I’m hoping may have sales. Even after booking flights, I’ll keep watching hotel prices up until my trip. Google often alerts me to flash sales that allow me to re-book at lower rates and get refunds for the difference.

Taking Flight with Google Flights: Tips for Finding Your Dream Trip on a Budget - Filter by Airline and Number of Stops to Customize Your Search

One of the most useful features on Google Flights is the ability to filter your flight search results by airline and number of stops. This allows you to customize options to your personal preferences so you don’t waste time sifting through irrelevant itineraries.

For instance, I strongly prefer flying on Delta thanks to perks like free seat assignments 24 hours before departure and generous baggage allowances. When I’m searching Google Flights, the first thing I do is check the “Airlines” filter and select only Delta flights. This filters out all other airline options, streamlining my search results.

I also despise long layovers and will pay a premium for nonstop flights whenever possible. So I always toggle the “Stops” filter from 0 stops (nonstop) up to a max of 1 stop. This removes confusing multi-stop itineraries from my results.

However, don’t let filters limit you too much. I know fliers who strictly filter one favorite airline then complain when I find 40% cheaper fares on competitors. Be open minded to options outside your normal habits if the deal is good enough.

My colleague Amanda only flew United because she had elite status. When planning a vacation to Hawaii, she filtered United and saw $750 roundtrips. For fun, I convinced her to search all airlines. Turns out Delta had stunning $400 fares! She decided giving up her United perks was worth saving $350.

The key is achieving balance. Use filters judiciously to cut out unnecessary clutter and noise. But also remember to periodically search all airlines and stops to unlock hidden savings you’d otherwise overlook.

For complex itineraries like multi-city trips, I start broad including all airlines and stops. Once I’ve identified the cheapest routing, I may re-filter by my preferred airlines to see if I can replicate the same route while sticking to my favorites.

Don’t forget to try various stop combinations too. Sometimes a 1 stop flight is cheaper versus nonstop since it uses a budget airline for one leg. Other times, it makes more sense to take two separate nonstops rather than a single connection.

I’m based in Los Angeles and recently needed to visit family in Philadelphia with a two week trip to Europe in between. Rather than suffer through a 10 hour nonstop haul, I filtered 1 stop flights. Turns out flying LA to Philly via Chicago was $250 cheaper than flying direct!

Taking Flight with Google Flights: Tips for Finding Your Dream Trip on a Budget - Use the Map View to Visualize Routes and Prices

Beyond just scanning text listings, I absolutely love using Google Flights’ interactive map view to visualize flight routes and compare pricing. The map opens up creative new possibilities you’d never uncover from traditional airline search results.

For example, let’s say I live in Los Angeles and am planning a trip to Asia. If I just punched in LAX to Tokyo, I’d miss out on considering better options. But looking at the map view, I can see at a glance prices for all sorts of Asian hubs like Seoul, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong that may be cheaper gateways.

The map is color coded by price, so I can instantly spot outliers. I’ll often find crazy deals by connecting through a secondary hub I would have never thought to search directly. The map essentially hands you hundreds of customizable routings to check out.

When I help friends plan complex multi-city itineraries, the map is invaluable. My buddy wanted to visit Prague, Vienna and Budapest on one Central Europe trip. Just looking at text search results, the cheapest routing was unclear. But the map made it obvious that starting in Prague then heading to Vienna and ending in Budapest offered massive savings over other sequences.

You can even add multiple destinations to visualize the optimal path connecting all your stops. I mapped out a client’s dream trip visiting Lisbon, Porto, Madrid, Barcelona and Ibiza. The map clearly showed beginning in Portugal and ending in Spain offered $150+ savings over flipping the route.

Beyond routing, the map visualizes steals where a stopover flight is cheaper than flying direct. My friend nearly paid $1,000 for San Francisco to Bangkok nonstop tickets before I intervened. When I mapped it out, a $650 flight going SFO-Taipei-Bangkok with a week stopover in Taiwan popped up. She was thrilled to see a new country for less!

Pro tip: sometimes the cheapest mapping route combines budget airlines like Scoot or AirAsia that don’t show up in normal text search results. Always cross-reference against the text list pricing when you spot a potential deal on the map. I’ve had the map suggest $500 LA to Sydney flights via Hawaii on Delta, but when I checked the text results, the Hawaii leg was actually on bargain carrier Hawaiian Airlines without baggage allowances.

Taking Flight with Google Flights: Tips for Finding Your Dream Trip on a Budget - Turn on Price Alerts to Get Notified of Fare Drops

One of my favorite time-saving features in Google Flights is price tracking. This eliminates the need to constantly re-check fares to see if they’ve dropped. With a simple click, Google will monitor prices and proactively notify you if there’s a change.

After searching for a flight, toggle on the “Track prices” switch next to your chosen itinerary. You can track up to 10 flight options simultaneously either by selecting the boxes next to additional results or using the gray tracking icon.

Once tracking is activated, you’ll see a running tally of how many times Google has checked each flight. They claim to check up to six times per day. You’ll also get a graph showing historical pricing trends and fare predictions. This helps visualize if prices are stable, rising, or dropping.

Now the magic happens behind the scenes. Google’s algorithms use machine learning to monitor billions of flight prices and predict when sales may hit. You just sit back and wait for their email alert that a tracked flight has changed or dropped by a significant amount.

I love how Google doesn’t waste my time with incremental $10-20 price moves. They intelligently filter alerts to only notify for meaningful discounts. I’ve saved hundreds by acting fast when Google tipped me off to major sales.

For example, last fall Google notified me that $900 roundtrip tickets from LA to Barcelona I was tracking had suddenly dropped to $650, almost 30% off! Had I not been using price tracking, I would’ve missed the 24 hour fare sale.

You can also configure custom price drop alerts tailored to your budget. Simply click the “Set price alert” link when signed into Google and enter your target fare. You’ll be notified if prices reach your threshold.

Beyond flights, Google’s price tracking works for hotels too! I use it to monitor rates at dream properties I’m hoping may have sales. Even after booking flights, I’ll keep watching hotel prices up until my trip. Google often alerts me to flash sales that allow me to re-book at lower rates and get refunds for the difference.

My colleague Amanda swears by Google's price tracking for surfing mistake fares. She once scored $350 roundtrip tickets from Chicago to Paris after Google tipped her off to a temporary pricing error. Without alerts, she would've missed out on the insane deal that disappeared within hours.

Another friend, James, says price alerts helped him snag $400 nonstop Seattle to Cancun flights when Google detected an unannounced fare sale. The rate dropped from $550 without warning for less than 48 hours before jumping back up.

Of course, you need to act fast once Google notifies you. The jaw-dropping fares are often short-lived mistakes or flash sales. I recommend enabling notifications on your phone so you get pinged immediately when a price drops.

One tip is to track a few flight options if your dates are flexible. That way if a sale pops up for nearby dates, you can swoop in and re-book. I tracked a week before and after my ideal Hawaii travel dates and ended up shifting my trip up two days thanks to a Google alert notifying me of a price plunge.

Taking Flight with Google Flights: Tips for Finding Your Dream Trip on a Budget - Maximize Savings by Mixing Airlines on Multi-city Trips

One of the most powerful but overlooked ways to save money with Google Flights is building multi-city itineraries across different airlines. Most travelers rigidly stick to their preferred airline for the entire trip. However, mixing and matching carriers can unlock substantial discounts you won’t see limiting yourself to a single option.

I recently helped my friend Jason plan a two week European adventure traveling to London, Paris, Rome and Santorini. He’s a devoted Delta flyer so initially only searched Delta flights. The cheapest roundtrip route he found on Delta from LA was about $1,200 with all legs on his beloved airline.

I convinced Jason to take off the Delta-only blinders and try opening up the search to all carriers. Piece by piece, I rebuilt his itinerary starting in London, then Paris, Rome and finally Santorini. The magic happened when I realized British Airways had $500 LA to London roundtrip fares whereas Delta wanted $800. I booked the BA flight and saved $300 right off the bat.

Finally, I discovered cheap mainland-to-island one-way fares on Aegean Airlines from Rome to Santorini for the last leg. In the end, Jason ended up paying only $850 for the entire multi-city trip - a huge 30% discount from his initial $1,200 Delta-only search.

The key to savings is the sterile Delta website will never surface creative options like flying BA transatlantic or using Level for intra-Europe hops. You need the flexible search power of Google Flights to uncover and piece together the optimal mix and match puzzle.

My friend Amanda had a similar experience planning her dream trip to southeast Asia. By stubbornly filtering to only United flights for her LA to Bangkok roundtrip, she almost spent $1,200. When I convinced Amanda to search all airlines, we found $600 fares on EVA Air for her outbound flight to Bangkok. Coming home, Korean Air had $350 LA to Taipei to LA routings with a long Taipei layover. That allowed her to spend a few days exploring Taiwan as a bonus at no extra airfare cost!