How to Save Money on Flights with Google Flights (Insider Tips)

Caleb and I know that planning the perfect vacation anywhere can be super overwhelming, but it can also be a lot of fun!

Especially when you have a couple like us on your side to help!

So that is just what we’re going to do in today’s post: help!

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Many people know about Google Flights, but they don’t know all the ins and outs. They just know how to find a flight based on their dates, book it, and go!

But that’s a HUGE missed opportunity for you! You’ll miss savings and possibly the opportunity to go some coolio places! <–Do people still say coolio, or am I showing my born-in-1990 age?

Let’s move on. 😅

Here are our top 3 fav tips for using Google Flights to your advantage:

1. Use the date grid!

When booking with Google flights, you can put your desired travel dates in like usual. But what most people don’t know is you can also use the “date grid” function.

It’s in the top right and it looks like this:

When you click it, something like this opens up:

Now you can use this color-coded chart to show you the cheapest dates to fly.

Green means that the price is cheaper than normal, black is standard price and red is higher than normal!

Sometimes a simple date shift can save you hundreds of dollars!

2. Use The Explore Feature

If you don’t know where you want to go, you just know you have some time off, you can use Google Flights to search with your dates and no specific destination. Most flight search engines make you pick a destination, so we LOVE this feature!

You can look at the ENTIRE world based on your departure airport:

You’ll see something like this and you can scroll around the world to see all your options!

Make sure you don’t miss the “all filters” button! Many people don’t know about it!

You can put a price limit in there to see if you can find some awesome deals. This is a good way to go to some off-the-beaten-path destinations!

3. Use Price Tracking

Get stressed about booking before a flight increases in price? We feel that, and so does Google Flights.

You can set price alerts with Google flights which is perfect if you have a very specific set of dates you must travel to.

Simply go to Google Flights, search for your flight, and use all the filters you want, such as your preferred airline or flights, including a checked bag.

Or, just leave it wide open (this is what we usually do!)

Then simply click the “track prices,” and you’ll get emails whenever the price increases or drops!

IMPORTANT: you need a Gmail account to do this. 

You could also toggle on “any dates,” and you’ll get the same emails when prices for that route are lower than normal within the next 3 to 6 months!

BONUS TIP: if you can, book an option that is directly through an airline. You get way better service if something was to go wrong!

With these tips, you’ll be saving money and have amazing experiences in no time!

Go to Google Flights Now!

If you found this helpful, or have ANY questions, leave a comment and we will get right back to ya!