As 2024 draws to a close, every budget traveler’s favorite time arrives – the end-of-year sales. Yes, the end of December and the start of January are usually the best times to find cheap flights. While it can be tricky and sometimes fortunate to find the best international deals of the week, there are increasingly more ways to bag a bargain flight.
Although there are plenty of flight comparison sites like Skyscanner or KAYAK, they can link to some sketchy third-party websites that aren’t super reliable.
On the other hand, Google Flights only uses prices and links that come directly from the airlines, so you know you’re in safe hands. If you want to fly with a reliable airline, check out the best-rated airlines in the world for 2025. So, what hacks can you use to find the cheapest flights on Google Flights? This should cover you!
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Embrace New Possibilities With Destination Explorer
Have some dates in mind but don’t know where to go on a budget?
While some of us have a clear idea of where we want to go on vacation, others have a long list of destinations they want to visit and aren’t fussed about the order. If you’re more flexible with your destination choices, use Google Flight’s Destination Explorer. Input your home airport and your chosen dates, and it’ll show you where you can fly and for how much.
You can filter it by duration, direct-only flights, different airlines, and more. So, if you’re looking for a quick weekend, maybe go direct, only under a four-hour flight time. If you’re going further and prefer certain airlines, check your favorite operators to ensure you get the service you want. You can also use this filter to find coveted cheap flights with layovers operated by airlines with free stopover programs. This is great if you’re not set on a destination or have set time off work and want to go somewhere new.
This feature also allows you to have flexibility with your dates. You can choose set dates or a weekend, one week, or two weeks in a particular month, and the map will show you the cheapest options. So, if you’re fully flexible, this is a great place to start to find a cheap flight deal. Remember to click the Price Table option when going through the results to see the cheapest day of the week to fly to that location.
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Track Prices & Use Price Insights
Make sure you’re getting a good deal
AÂ traveler waiting for his flight at the airport
Our next Google Flights cheap travel hack is all about the data. Unsurprisingly, Google has a ton of travel data to back up its various insights, and the two best features to use are Track Prices and Price Insight. These come into play once you’ve found the flights you want to book. So, enjoy looking for destinations and cheap dates using the Explore and Price Table features, but don’t rush to book immediately.
First, scroll to the bottom of the page and see a green, orange, and red slider. This is the Price Insight feature. It’ll tell you whether that route’s advertised price is low, average, or high. It draws on 12 months of flight price data, so it has a solid average rather than just using recent sales data.
If it comes up as low, that’s great news. If you have time, we’d recommend still clicking the slider at the top of the page to track prices. This means you’ll get email alerts when the price increases. However, you’ll find the Price History dropdown if you go into Manage Alerts. This shows if the price is trending up or down and can help you see if it’s a deal.
Once you’ve chosen your route and date, you’ll also get to choose between the “Best” and “Cheapest” tabs. Of course, for cheap flights, head to the cheapest tab to see the lowest prices available.
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Use Browser Extensions Like Points Path For Redemption Deals
Make your points go further and get cheaper deals with useful extensions
Recently, there’s been more content about building frequent flier miles and using points for trips and upgrades. This is an awesome way to get cheap flights and free upgrades, or you can combine it with cash to bring the price down. When we’re budget-friendly travel enthusiasts, building points is a must, especially for long-haul adventures! It’s also one of the secret ways to fly cheaper in business class or first class and enjoy that luxury experience.
However, knowing if you’re getting a deal with redemption points is difficult. If you build points using a credit card, like Chase Rewards or American Express, you can transfer your points to a huge range of loyalty programs, some of which come with hefty redemption bonuses. If you use Google Flights and want to use points on your next trip, you have to download Points Path as a browser extension.
It works with Google Flights and tells you how many points each route will cost you while you search. It’ll also simultaneously tell you the taxes and fee prices, which is amazing. So, you can directly compare different redemption programs and loyalty schemes in Google Flights and see the flights’ cash prices. This makes determining whether the flight is worth using your points easy.
At the moment, Points Path doesn’t cover all airline reward programs. It does specify when it doesn’t cover a specific program, so while it’s not comprehensive yet (they are working on that) it takes a lot of the manual legwork out of working out the best redemption for your points.
So, if you’re searching for cheap flights, you need to use these Google Flights hacks. From checking the average price of your flights to making the most of your reward points to discovering new destinations for less, there are plenty of ways to save on your next getaway.