Recent flight booking experience I thought I would share. I love planning my trips, but, I think I learn something new on every single one. For instance, using the much lauded google flights, I have been tracking a flight from Anchorage to Amsterdam since November for this July. We are willing to pay more for less stops, but are not first class travelers. So, Delta looked like the best option on google flights, but, holy moly, they were $3,700 for the two of us! And it didn't change. Then, I remembered that Condor flies direct from Anchorage to Frankfurt (only seasonally), but for some reason they were not coming up on google flights at all. So I went straight to the website and low and behold, the times were great and the price was $2,500 for the two of us. Booked it, but wondered why it had never come up on google flights in all my searches. At first I thought they were not on google flights (like Southwest), but that was not the case. It's a mystery??
Posted by
Land of La
8625 posts
Its not a mystery. Google Flights is merely a search service. Its convenient. Yes. Does it list every airline. No.
Always best to research and book directly with an airline.
Posted by
4509 posts
Interesting, on the airline dropdown list in Google/flights Condor is absent and I know in years past is has shown up for me.
Checking I see Skyscanner promises to show all airlines possible, and Condor does indeed show up there.
Also checking I see local airline Sun Country has also been dropped from Google/flights but still shows up on Skyscanner. I need to see Condor and Sun Country flights in order to make good ticket decisions. I know when relevant I need to check Southwest.com in any case.
Like Google/flights, Skyscanner will roll over to the airline website for purchase.
I have a new go to airline site. Thanks, Tammy. Not recommending Google/flights again on this website. (Although still check both, I am tracking a flight to India and Skyscanner is not bringing up the United fare that is cheapest.)
Posted by
Philly
247 posts
Google needs list out the airlines they don’t include in their search!
For my may trip, google gave me a multi city option on United that I could not find on Kayak or United search! (And the booking link was to United site itself). I was impressed.
During our zoom call, someone brought up Scott’s cheap flights which is a search service. I looked them up and in their FAQ, even they give reasons why they recommend google flights as the best option. We need to keep it as the first go to.
Posted by
Beaverton, Oregon, USA
740 posts
I also like this site to see my options. Note: this is NOT a booking site.
Posted by
Hudson Valley
2267 posts
Google bought ITA years ago, and The ITA Matrix is basically the same data as google flights, but without the scammy third parts advertising ever so slightly discounted tickets.
These rely on what the airlines make available for viewing in their systems. If airlines don't publish fares on the international platforms Google kind of "cant know what it doesn't know." Southwest doesn't show up there at all—never has.
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4032 posts
I use skyscanner for the cheap European flights from city to city, less for trans-ocean flights. No site covers every airline so far as I know. I also follow the common advice and use the information from these searches to buy directly from the airline.