How I Booked A Weekend Getaway using Google Flights Explore
Is it time for a weekend getaway? Are you planning a trip or just considering one? Are you dreaming about a beach? How about a weekend of great music or food? Step into Google Flights and plan your next getaway using the Google Flights Explore map.
I didn’t realize when I first started using this that it would become almost as addictive as any of the games on my phone. We like to travel each month and this is a game changer for picking places and saving money.
Google Flights has a lot of great features, but it’s the perfect solution if you’re flexible on your travel dates.
Use the Google Flights Explore Map
If you start off on the map view – you can choose your home airport and let Google pick a destination for you. You can enter up to five airports as your home airport and it find out if driving to another airport may save you even more money. We use Austin as our home airport but it’s only about 15 minutes further to drive to San Antonio. Adding San Antonio as another option gave us even more choices on destinations.
You can toggle your choices by “specific dates” or “flexible dates” and “weekend”, “one week” or “two week”. The just mouse over the blue dots to see all the results.
It doesn’t stop there. You can choose a destination and the fare calendars will pop up to help you choose your dates. You can toggle the arrows next to the dates to change them and see how it affects the fares.
Sadly, Google Flights does not display Southwest Airlines since they don’t share their fares with online travel agencies. Southwest is generally our go to airline, but that didn’t stop us from finding some great deals!
Save Money
The airfare in green is considered the best price, but be sure to check out the travel time. It ma be the best price but it may not be the best trip. It will also have a box at the top with more information on saving money. Sometimes if you pick a different date, time or airport the results will be money saving. It will also tell you if there are extra charges for carry-on’s or checked bags. (Not for all airlines so be sure to confirm.)
Track Your Trips
You can tell google to keep track of a trip you’re considering and to e-mail you if a better price comes around. It will alert you to price changes and also send you travel tips. And you can extend even further into Google Trips on your phone. So now I can use the app at the airport and plan a trip while I’m on one!
So we booked a trip to Destin for the weekend. $176 round trip for 2 people. Bags are extra but I think I can fit a swimsuit and cover up into my purse! Anyone want to join us?
