Alison Fox is a Travel + Leisure contributor. She has also written for Parents.com, The Wall Street Journal, and amNewYork. When she’s not in New York City, she can be found at the beach or on the slopes.
Google will soon disable the ability to book air travel directly through the search engine, finding travelers prefer to book directly through an airline or another travel website.
Google will stop offering the option to book a flight directly through the site after Sept. 30 for most of the world. The search engine will then similarly end the option in the United States after March 31, 2023, the company confirmed to Travel + Leisure.
“Over the next 12 months, we plan to phase out the Book on Google feature for flights,” a company spokesperson told T+L. “We originally offered this functionality to give people a simpler way to buy their tickets and to help our partner airlines and OTAs [online travel agencies] receive more bookings. However, we’ve found over time that people actually want to book directly on partner websites, and we always strive to meet user preferences whenever possible.”
Until the time the feature is disabled, travelers will be able to book directly through Google using a payment method stored in their Google account. Bookings made before the feature is disabled will not be impacted, according to the company.
Travelers who do book through Google still receive a confirmation email directly from the airline or another online travel agency. Travelers then have to contact the airline or travel agency directly with any questions, or cancellation or change requests.
Even once the booking feature is no longer available, travelers will still be able to search for a flight through Google Flights, which offers money-saving features like the ability to “explore” the map to find the best deal and set price alerts on flights.
Beyond flights, Google is making it easier to plan travel by introducing a tool that allows travelers to find places to stay within walking or driving distance of a particular landmark, attraction, or event. Google also introduced a “Live View” feature on its maps to allow users to see arrows and directions in the world around them superimposed onto their smartphone.
Alison Fox is a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure. When she's not in New York City, she likes to spend her time at the beach or exploring new destinations and hopes to visit every country in the world. Follow her adventures on Instagram.
Google says that while Book on Google has been beneficial for some partners, the search engine has overall witnessed a declining share of Google flight
Google flight
Google Flights is an online flight booking search service that facilitates the purchase of airline tickets through third-party suppliers. It was launched by Google in 2011 following a buyout. It is now part of Google Travel.
Google Will No Longer Be a Place to Book Travel as Fewer Travelers Were Using It. Google announced it will shut Book on Google for flights for users outside the U.S. at the end of September, and told Skift it will likewise end the feature in the U.S. sometime after March 31.
In the top left, click Menu. Tracked flight prices. To find flights you're tracking, click a saved route. To turn tracking emails on or off, click Add notification .
Optional: To stop tracking a route or flight, click Remove .
Not all airlines are on Google Flights. One major exception in the US is Southwest Airlines, which does not list its fares on Google Flights. Several large Asian carriers are also absent from the results, including Air China, China Eastern, Thai Airways, and Philippine Airlines.
At last, there's more to “luv” with Google Flights: Southwest Airlines is now part of the search engine. While Google's flight search engine is one of the most powerful tools to shop for airfare, historically, it has been hampered by a lack of Southwest flights.
Google stated last week that in addition to eliminating the Google Flights unit in search results, it plans to add new dedicated units that contain links from competitors. It also plans to add a tool for consumers to solely retrieve search results from comparison sites such Momondo and Skyscanner, for example.
It was decided to condense their product offerings and give customers a more cohesive experience. Google wanted to increase the usability and accessibility of travel planning for people who already depend on these services by incorporating travel-related functionality into already-existing platforms.
As previously mentioned, booking airfare on Sunday is cheaper than other days of the week, especially Fridays. Be willing to fly mid-week. Since Thursdays tend to be the cheapest day to fly, see if you can tweak your travel plans so you depart and fly home during the week instead of on weekend days.
You can filter the results to see only nonstop flights or flights under a certain price to more easily plan your perfect budget trip. If you already have a destination in mind, you can turn on price tracking to get alerts if the fare changes for a route or flight.
Southwest didn't list its fares for sale through Google or almost any other site by design: It didn't want to put loyalty in the hands of an intermediary. Previously, the only option to book Southwest flights was directly on the airline's website or app.
Google Flights uses over 300 partners, like airlines, online travel agencies, and aggregators, to display its offers. Not all airlines or available flights are included, as a partnership with Google is required.
Southwest stands out among domestic carriers for not sharing its fare prices with sites like Expedia and Google. Sally French is a travel rewards expert who joined NerdWallet in 2020.
"We've made it possible for Google Flights users to compare our different fare options and click directly into Southwest.com to book their selected itinerary," the airline said.
If you're flexible about where you'd like to fly from and fly to, you can enter multiple airports separated by commas. You can also enter one airport (like BOS) and then click on the location icon to look for nearby airports. Click OK to add your selected airports to your search entry.
You can find cheap flight deals to anywhere in the world on Google Flights. Just enter your departure city, choose Anywhere as the destination, and select Explore. You can pick specific dates or leave departure and return dates blank if your plans are flexible. The cheapest fares to popular destinations will appear.
So flights that showed available a few days ago, and are still scheduled but show as unavailable, likely hit the threshold where the airline won't sell anymore seats on them. Since people cancel reservations all the time, you could keep checking to see if that happens on your desired flight.
Of course, keep in mind that the Google Earth photos are mostly taken from aircraft flying at 18,000 feet and not satellites, so for an airplane to be caught on Google Earth, it must be flying at an altitude below the camera plane. You do see them. Especially if you zoom over airports and Air Force Bases.
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