Google's new feature shows cheapest time to book air tickets; know more
Google Flights has just launched a new feature which will help travellers to zero in on the cheapest window of time to purchase airline tickets
For price conscious fliers, booking early has helped to beat skyrocketing prices of airline tickets. But, sometimes ticket fares do dip closer to the date of the travel too and fliers always feel it's a big gamble.
To plug this loophole, Google Flights has just kicked off a new feature which will help travellers to zero in on the cheapest window of time to purchase airline tickets. Travellers can then take a decision if it’s better to wait, or to book that ticket immediately.
New additional feature
This new feature by Google Flights was officially announced through a blog post on Monday (August 28) morning, and guides travellers on the most budget-friendly period for booking flights. This cheap window suggestion offering is an additional feature which Google Flights provides besides its price tracking alerts, price comparison features already available on the platform.
In its blog post, introducing the new features the tech giant said, “On Google Flights, you can already see whether current prices for your search are low, typical or high compared to past averages for the same route. But the age-old question remains: Is it better to book now or wait for lower prices to come along?”
So, the company decided to launch “upgraded insights to make that choice a bit easier” for fliers.
Cheapest time window
Basically, it will help to tell you the “cheapest time” to book, maybe it could be two months before departure or a few days before takeoff. This will help fliers to decide to wait before booking. These insights have been derived from their past pricing data.
However, according to reports, a booking window will only be provided when they have enough consistent, historical pricing data to identify a meaningful trend. In some routes, prices fluctuate a lot every year and it turns out that there isn't a consistent cheapest time to book.
Price guarantee
Further, according to the Google Flights blog post, there is also a colourful price guarantee badge on offer. (Only on flights departing from the US) If this badge appears on a particular airfare it means that from their data they are confident that the price won’t get any lower before departure.
“When you book one of these flights, we’ll monitor the price every day before takeoff, and if the price does go down, we’ll pay you back the difference via Google Pay. These price guarantees are part of a pilot programme available for select book on Google itineraries departing from the US,” said the post.
2023 flight booking trends
There are other flight booking trends for 2023 that Google has come up with as well. For example, to the question on what’s the best time to book for Christmas, their insights have shown that for trips starting in mid-December, fliers most likely will find good deals around early October.
Today, average prices tend to be lowest 71 days before departure, which is different from their 2022 insights. Last year, average prices were lowest just 22 days before departure. Moreover, the typical low price range is now 54-78 days before takeoff, said the Google Flights post.
Best time to book flights from the US to Europe
Data has shown that average prices have been lowest 72 days or more before departure. In other words, average airfares from the US to Europe only tend to increase over time, especially once you’re about 10 weeks from departure and therefore it is advisable to book it ahead of time.