How to use Google Flights to book your next trip

By Carly Coombs | Posted: Oct. 14, 2024

If you’re looking for a simple and comprehensive way to search for affordable flights, Google Flights is a great tool to do just that. 

Google Flights is a search engine that scans for flights based on your search and pulls many flight options for you to compare. Searching on Google Flights can be daunting at first, so here’s an explainer on how to use it and some key features and tools. 

The basics of searching for a flight 

You can start by plugging in your home airport, the destination you want to travel to, and your departure and return dates. 

Google Flights will then populate a list of many flight options with various airlines, layovers, departure times, and more. By default, the results will be for economy seating, but you have the option to adjust that above the search boxes. 

If you are searching for a roundtrip flight, the first list you are going to see will be for the departure flight, but the price shown will be the total cost, including a return. 

You can filter the results using the “sort by” button on the right-hand side of the screen. Google automatically sorts by “best flight,” but you can sort it by price, departure time, arrival time, flight duration, and emissions. 

Each flight option is going to have a drop-down arrow that will give you more information on the specific flight, such as layover details, departure and arrival times, and services on the aircraft. 

Alright, so you found the departure flight that works for you. Next, you’ll click the “select flight” button, and it will take you to your return flight options, and you can pick the return flight you like best. 

After you have picked both your flights, Google will show you your booking options, which sometimes include different seating class choices or options for booking on a third-party website such as Expedia. We recommend booking directly with an airline, if possible. 

If you click on the option to book directly with the airline, you’ll be redirected to the airline’s website, where you’ll start the booking and payment process (your chosen flights will already be selected). 

If you’re searching for a one-way flight, the process will be the same, minus selecting a return flight. 

Tips and tricks on finding the best flight 

Google Flights has a variety of features and filters that help you find cheaper flights or flights within specific parameters. 

If you are looking to find cheaper flights and have some flexibility, there are a few tools you can use to broaden your search. 

One option is to use either the “date grid” or “price graph” tools, both located on the right-hand side. 

The date grid is going to show you how prices vary based on your departure and return dates. If you are flexible with the length of your trip or what days you want to leave and come home, this is a great tool to find the cheapest flights.

The price graph will show you how prices change over the span of about two months. This tool only shows for a certain trip length, such as seven days, but you can adjust that to be longer or shorter and see how things change. 

If you’re flexible with your destination, there are also ways to search based on state, country, or continent. 

For example, if you want to go to Europe but aren’t picky about where, you can plug in your home airport and then put Europe in the destination box. This is going to give you a map and a list of flight options and the cost.

You can also play around with the dates here. If you have specific dates you want to go, you can plug those in and see what cities are the cheapest to fly to. 

If you’re flexible with dates, select the flexible date option and select either a specific month or “all” (which searches within the next six months), and then your trip duration — either a weekend, one week, or two weeks. 

Another helpful feature in Google Flights is the price alerts (my personal favorite). When you set up a price alert, you’ll get regular emails about price changes for flights to a specific destination. 

You can set up a price alert after searching for your destination, and there will be a button below the search field. You can set alerts for specific dates or any dates. 

Google Flights also has helpful filters to customize your search parameters, and those filters are located just below the destination and date fields. You can filter by stops, airlines, bags, price, time, emissions, connecting airports, and flight duration. Above the search field are filters for seat class (economy, first-class, etc.), number of tickets, and round-trip, one-way, or multi-city trips.

Maybe you don’t want any long layovers. You can adjust layover duration in the “connecting airports” filter. Or maybe you want to ensure the ticket price includes a carry-on bag. You can use the “bags” filter to add a carry-on. 

Overall, Google Flights is a great, user-friendly resource for making your travels cheaper and more convenient!