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Google to Offer a Best Price Guarantee on Certain Flights

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Re: Google to Offer a Best Price Guarantee on Certain Flights

#41

This appears to be a time-limited promotion. > When we predict the price won’t decrease for select itineraries booked between August 13 and September 2, we’ll guarantee the price won’t drop, and we’ll refund you the difference if it does.

Do they say if this is US-only?

> This feature is available for select itineraries originating in the U.S. with domestic or international destinations.

Re: Google to Offer a Best Price Guarantee on Certain Flights

#43
post #4

Google putting the finishing touches om the ITA software acquisition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITA_Software But oddly closed google trips, which frankly was decent. Google sometimes seems like incoherent.

I've been using Google flights and trips features for years and never had the Trips app. I am using it right now, for my current trip. The data propagates through assistant and maps and so on. I got an automatic notification about my flight delay and I can see my hotel reservation right on maps.

The Trips app may have been nice for having it all in one place, but it definitely wasn't a necessary part of the experience.

Re: Google to Offer a Best Price Guarantee on Certain Flights

#44
Note that this is a temporary promotion:

> Price guarantee is available between August 13th and September 2nd, 2019. You'll see the price guarantee badge on select flights where travel is completed by November 24th, 2019.

Still sounds like a great deal, but this explains why it's not a huge liability.

Re: Google to Offer a Best Price Guarantee on Certain Flights

#45

My question is, with Google's pretty much non-existent customer service (unless you're on G-suite), how difficult is the process going to be to get to a human if you want to make a claim that they weren't the lowest price?

Especially when the existing sites that at least offer 800 numbers are already so bad at doing low price guarantees. Look at what hotels.com did when the price dropped by $1000: quibble about whether the rate was really the same because of whether breakfast was offered all week versus weekdays. It turned out to be their error anyway. https://www.elliott.org/the-troubleshooter/hotel-price-drops...

Re: Google to Offer a Best Price Guarantee on Certain Flights

#46
post #44

Note that this is a temporary promotion: > Price guarantee is available between August 13th and September 2nd, 2019. You'll see the price guarantee badge on select flights where travel is completed by November 24th, 2019. Still sounds like a great deal, but this explains why it's not a huge liability.

It may be a test run. Flight pricing is complicated, Google may be reasonably worried about the unknown-unknowns.

Re: Google to Offer a Best Price Guarantee on Certain Flights

#48
post #42

How often do prices actually drop? I fly pretty often and I can't remember the last time I encountered a price drop on a flight over time.

The flight I want has been fluctuating between $400 and $700 every couple of days for the last two weeks. It's $729 now and I need to gamble on whether it will go back down and I should wait, or whether it's about to go up even higher.

I _hate_ flying solely because of the gambling mechanic built-in to the purchase.

Re: Google to Offer a Best Price Guarantee on Certain Flights

#49
post #48
post #42

How often do prices actually drop? I fly pretty often and I can't remember the last time I encountered a price drop on a flight over time.

The flight I want has been fluctuating between $400 and $700 every couple of days for the last two weeks. It's $729 now and I need to gamble on whether it will go back down and I should wait, or whether it's about to go up even higher. I _hate_ flying solely because of the gambling mechanic built-in to the purchase.

It is an international flight that's 6+ months away? And the exact same flights (not just same days etc) Because that's the only time I can remember seeing something like that.

Re: Google to Offer a Best Price Guarantee on Certain Flights

#50
I recently searched for flights via Google Flights (for Frontier). The price shown for the exact same itinerary was ~$50 more on Google Flights than when I used my smartphone on a different network (disabled WiFi), going directly on Frontier's website. This could be because Google counted for things like, for example, 1 checked bag when comparing all flights.

I don't have enough knowledge on the matter, but I will absolutely use a different device and book directly on the airline's site to ensure I get the best price with no middleman fees.

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