A new tool within Google Flights can uncover the absolute cheapest airfare to your desired destination. However, you might have to brace for overnight terminal stays, multiple connections, and mix-and-match carriers.
But wait, you say. Doesn’t Google Flights already allow you to sort by cheapest price? Yes and no. The algorithm searches for the “best” flights, considering both price and convenience. That usually means straightforward itineraries: one airline, no airport transfers, no 18-hour layovers.
Photo: Courtesy of Google
The new tab within the mobile version of Google Flight shows you rock-bottom fares without any of those scruples. This may mean “more…creative itineraries,” Google says.
“Sometimes, there might be cheaper options available for those of you who are willing to give up some convenience for the best deal,” the company said in a blog post about the tweak.
Google gave the example of an offer from a third-party booking site rather than from the airline itself or journeys in which you return to a different airport than you flew out of, for example, departing from New York’s LaGuardia (LGA) and returning to nearby JFK.
Photo: Courtesy of Suriya Narayanan / Unsplash
These cheap tickets may also have longer layovers, flights purchased from multiple different booking sites, and self-transfers between unrelated airlines, which require you to check in again and could leave you unprotected in the event of cancellations and delays.
For example, when we searched for Christmas-time return flights from London to Tokyo, the cheapest flight in the “best” tab was a journey with Turkish Airlines, with a single two-and-a-half-hour layover in Istanbul (IST) for $1,923.
But Google also found us a more adventurous itinerary for just $1,293. This marathon journey features a low-cost Wizz Air flight to Milan Malpensa (MXP), an overnight layover, and a connection to Prague (PRG). In Prague, you switch to Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines and fly to Beijing (PEK), and from there, board your fourth flight, finally landing at Tokyo Narita (NRT), 30 hours and 30 minutes after you depart London Gatwick (LGA).
Photo: Courtesy of Artur Voznenko / Unsplash
Not everyone will be willing to subject themselves to that journey, but travelers on tight budgets may jump at the chance to save $630.
Google says the new tool allows users to “decide for yourself what tradeoffs you want to make.”
The new tool is being rolled out worldwide on the mobile version of Google Flights over the next two weeks.