Christmas is only a few weeks away and that means millions of Americans are gearing up to travel this month. In fact, 606,218 domestic flights were scheduled in December 2023, according to reports from the US Department of Transportation -- and it's expecting an even busier 2024.
If you are one of the millions of people planning to travel by air for the end-of-year holidays, you may be looking for the cheapest available airfare -- and Google Flights has a feature to help.
On Oct. 16, Google unveiled a new "Cheapest" tab on Google Flights to help travelers save money and find ultracheap flights with ease. Here's how it works and how it got me super cheap tickets on trips I've been aching to book.
Read more: Southwest Airlines Flights Are Now Available on Google Flights
How I found the cheapest flights on Google Flights
To start, I pulled up Google Flights, which you can do either by heading to www.google.com/travel/flights or searching for "google flights."
The "Cheapest" tab aggregates flights strictly based on price.
Macy Meyer/CNETNow, you'll just need to enter your trip details and tap the "Cheapest" tab to browse the lowest options available.
During my testing, I tried to book a flight from Charlotte to Philadelphia from Friday, Jan. 17 through Tuesday, Jan. 21 to visit an old friend from college. The platform first brought me to a "Best" tab, which shows flights ranked by convenience and price. Then, I toggled over to the "Cheapest" tab, which shows flights strictly based on price. On the "Best" tab, airfare started at $219 for an American Airlines flight. On the "Cheapest" tab, airfare started as low as $76 for a nonstop Frontier flight. The caveat, though, is that the Frontier flight requires an additional fee to bring a carry-on bag.
To get a sense of how cheap domestic flights can be, I experimented with itineraries from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Atlanta to Boston, and NYC to Denver, finding that many flights are under $400 -- and some are around or below $200.
I was also curious about how this new feature would impact the cost of international flights. Visiting Vienna is at the very top of my travel bucket list and I've always fantasied about booking a trip during the city's Ball Season, which peaks in January and February. I simulated a trip from Charlotte to Vienna between Monday, Jan. 20 and Monday, Jan. 27, and close to 150 flight options were available for these dates. The high end of tickets ranged from about $850 to more than $1,000, but the cheapest price was right at $504. As someone who is constantly tracking flights to Vienna, airfare costing right at $500 is a solid deal.
While $500 is definitely affordable for a flight to Europe, the catch is that this flight itinerary includes three stops on the returning flight, including an overnight layover. The departing and returning flights are also self-transfers, which involves booking two or more separate flights from different airlines. This can save significant money, but requires more involved planning and research.
How does the "cheapest" feature work?
To aggregate the cheapest options, Google Flights has expanded its flight offerings from third parties, such as online travel agents, and providing flight itineraries that may be less convenient, such as flights with longer layovers or booking different legs of the trip across different airlines or booking providers.
The "Cheapest" tab feature rolled out globally in October and November, ahead of the peak holiday travel season. We've already covered the cheapest times to book flights based on destination and time of year, and now, Google Flights is offering a new upgrade for when cost is more of priority than convenience to maximize your travel budget.
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