I was recently talking with a friend who is looking to take an international trip in 2020. I asked if she had considered flights yet and she hadn’t looked into them. In my opinion, the easiest tool to look for paid flights is Google Flights.
Google Flights is a flight aggregator that has most of the tools you would want built in. The landing page shows a simple From: To: field, along with dates of travel. If you have no idea where you want to go, but are just searching for ideas, fill out the From: field and click explore destinations below the date fields.
The explore destinations is quite handy and really helps you understand where you might want to go based on price.
As you can see, the default is a map of the US (assuming that your origin is in the US). If you move the map around, you will get more results for the visible map areas. You also have the option of selecting the duration of your trip and the time frame. You also have the ability to identify class of service, number of stops, airlines, if you want the price to include bags, etc.
Once the destination is selected, the available flights and airlines will display.
If you are planning a trip and know your destination, the calendar option is your best bet. In the example below, I selected Johannesburg, South Africa as the destination, an 8 day trip, and then clicked on the calendar icon.
You can change the duration of the trip using the arrows on the bottom and you can look at additional months by scrolling the calendar to the left or the right. This really helps if you have some flexibility in your travel and so you can find the best flights. Just be aware that the cheapest flight isn’t always the best. Each traveler has to determine if they want to fly a specific carrier (because of a frequent flyer alliance or better amenities in cabin), fly the least number of stops, or fly the least amount of hours/miles. The calendar function can also provide a little insight as to what time of the year may be more expensive to fly than others, in case you are planning more than a year out.
In the example below, the highlighted lowest fare is $989 for this 8 day itinerary. However, when clicking on view flights, that $989 fare isn’t necessarily the best as it is longer and may have more stops.
In the example above, it is nearly $600 cheaper to fly the cheapest flight but it is nearly twice as long to arrive at your destination than the single stop, single airline itinerary of Delta. Ultimately, you’d have to decide if the cheaper flight is worth an extra 2 days of travel with (likely) hotel stay.
If you’re wanting to figure out the best time to travel, or just wanting to figure out where to go, Google Flights is a great tool to get you started.
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