My Google Flights Tricks

Flights are a big portion of your travel budget so being able to save a few hundred can free up some funds for fun experiences! I’m going to provide my google flights tricks for finding good deals. These are not magic wand strategies or cutting corners, but just some basic approaches that can help you save some money.

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Before you dive in, I want to be transparent: this article includes affiliate links. This simply means that if you click on the link and make a purchase, I may earn a commission. Rest assured, the article includes my genuine advice and it won’t cost you anything extra. Your support is greatly appreciated. Happy reading!

Google Flights Tricks

Be Flexible – Use Google Flights Explore Feature

The easiest way to save is to be fully flexible! If you are flexible with the dates and destination, you can save so much money! For instance, if you search for Europe flights in the Summer versus the Fall, the price difference will be significant! And the nice thing about the months of September and October is you’ll deal with WAY less crowds in Europe too!

Partially Flexible

If you are only flexible with either dates or destination, you can also save money! With Google Flights it’s easy to search by dates and leave the destination open or set the destination and look at various dates. Just having some flexibility makes it easier to save money and increase your chances of finding better deals.

Search Multiple Airports

It can be very inconvenient in some cases, to travel to different airports, but there are times it’s worth it. Now if you live in a big city, like New York, you have multiple airports already! In my case, there are two additional airports about four hours away in South Florida. It’s not always worth me traveling to those airports, but I usually check just to see.

Pricing is important to consider, but also flight schedules. For example, a flight for me might include a stopover in Fort Lauderdale but that stop will last 12 hours! At that point, I’d rather drive or take the train south instead of being stuck for a long layover.

Consider the Cheapest Spot Regionally

I’ve used this technique for Europe numerous times, but it’s also possible for other regions in the world as well. Let’s say you want to get to Rome, Italy, but the flight to London is significantly cheaper. So fly to London and from London fly to Rome. This is the strategy I’ve used for multiple trips to Europe!

Google Flights does help with this concept which is great! The downside is the flight schedule may not be ideal. Or the airline showing up is a budget ticket price with nothing included. However, check out the considerations below to help with this strategy.

Search from the Layover Airport

This is the technique I used for Fiji and I saved a few hundred dollars. As I stated above, Google Flights is getting better and better for finding good deals. However, it can still be improved upon. If I want to cross the Pacific, then Los Angeles and San Francisco are common layover airports. So I used the map explore feature from those two airports and discovered Fiji had a flight sale of $607!

When I searched from Orlando, the flight price to Fiji was $1,200.+ So I ended up booking Los Angeles to Fiji and then I found a flight from Orlando to Los Angeles. I didn’t want to have a long layover in L.A. so I ended up paying about $320, which still made my total less than $1,000.

From experience, I know it’s hard to get tickets crossing the Pacific Ocean for less than $1,000 from Orlando! So this was such a great find for me and hopefully I can translate this strategy in the coming years for Australia to visit my sister and family.

Considerations | Google Flights Tricks

There are considerations to make when you are researching and planning with google flights.

Baggage Fees or Extras

These days, you can’t assume anything for any airline. It’s annoying and tedious but you have to know what is included with the low price you see. For some airlines, that price will include a personal item, carry-on, and food. Other airlines, you would only get a personal item.

When I’m searching, I’ll research a few of the low price options from various airlines. That way, I can know what is actually the lowest price after I ensure a carry-on is included in the price.

Enough Time for Layovers

When you are booking multiple legs of a trip, you need to ensure you have enough time for layovers. Is it just a matter of changing planes? Or do you have to go through customs and immigration? Are flights often delayed? Did you check a bag, so you’ll have to wait at a baggage claim?

Since you would be booking separate tickets, airlines won’t know that you have a connecting flight. For instance, my trip to Fiji I had four hours between flights. Going to Fiji was no issue, but returning from Fiji, we left almost three hours late! The pilot made up some time in the air, but I had to hustle through customs and hurry to another terminal and then to my gate! I actually made it no problem, but I was stressed.

So just be sure to consider all the factors and give yourself enough time.

Same Airports for Same Day Connections

This is more obvious, but we can get distracted. If you are flying into London as an example, but are wanting to fly to Rome in the same day, make sure to book from the same airport. London has multiple airports so it can be easy to accidentally book from the wrong airport.

If you are flying out a different day and spending some time in London then in that case it wouldn’t matter. It’s just something to consider and pay attention to while booking.

Book with the Airline

In most cases, it’s best to just book directly with the airline. In the event something is wrong, it’s easier to deal with only the airline rather than the booking site and the airline.

There can be exceptions to this, but overall I recommend booking directly with the airline.

I hope these google flights tricks were helpful! It can be annoying with all the variables these days, but you can save money and google flights is a great tool!