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Google Flights

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Re: Google Flights

#91

Post by sareon »

mda wrote: post #88
rabble wrote: post #80

So sad to see matrix.itasoftware.com's amazing search engine get most of it's features ripped out and replaced with a pretty UI that does so little. For folks who like hipmonk? Do you really travel? Their search engine also fails to find most good fares. Pretty but useless. Most people who are serious use expertflyer.com and matrix.itasoftware.com to find fares. Yes you have to learn a bit about how air fares are con…

May I ask which feature in Matrix you like is not available in Google Flights?

I like being able to select a number of possible departure airports (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Detroit) and then my days I like being able to say +/- 2 days.

Re: Google Flights

#92

Post by ketralnis »

rabble wrote: post #80

So sad to see matrix.itasoftware.com's amazing search engine get most of it's features ripped out and replaced with a pretty UI that does so little. For folks who like hipmonk? Do you really travel? Their search engine also fails to find most good fares. Pretty but useless. Most people who are serious use expertflyer.com and matrix.itasoftware.com to find fares. Yes you have to learn a bit about how air fares are con…

> Their search engine also fails to find most good fares

Do you have an example of this? We get our data from the same place that Matrix does

Re: Google Flights

#93

Post by photorized »

jff wrote: post #43
downey wrote: post #3

It's okay, but it's no Hipmunk.

I tried using Hipmunk a few times, but the prices were always at least a hundred dollars more than if I had just gone to Orbitz.com and dealt with their crap interface--I've always found that Orbitz has prices at least as good as anywhere else, so I tend to judge against them. Google, on the other hand, gave me exactly what I needed at prices competitive to Orbitz. It was a bit disappointing that when I was done, I h…

Hipmunk seems to be marking things up. For the few flights that I tried recently, tickets were $30..90 more than from the airline's own website.

Oh, and getting tired of Himpunk's promoted ads on the site that shall not be named.

Re: Google Flights

#94

Post by niketdesai »

This is a partial product still being built (as it's domestic at the moment and will obviously go international I'm sure).

But the speed and data quality is where they will win out. The faster the interface allows people to do what they want to do: many searches until an ideal candidate is found. Other sites appear slow and most of the information they bring back is useless (to the user) so speed is the name of the game.

Turns out Google is pretty good at that game. Just my thoughts.

Re: Google Flights

#96

Post by JacobAldridge »

pan69 wrote: post #24
JacobAldridge wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would anyone ever want to leave Australia? (Jokes the Aussie with the travel startup.)

Just looked at your travel website. Very interesting. I'm also in Australia with an interest in the combo of travel & start-up. What exactly is it that you start up does?

The current focus of everydaydream holiday (www.everydaydreamholiday.com) is to entertain travel lovers who are not currently planning a holiday.

And rather than an endless stream of newsletters or FB posts with random destinations, we are actually taking readers on a single, realistic holiday with input from locals.

That's the focus so far. We launched less than 2 weeks ago, so we expect there to be evolution and change.

[Edit: Feel free to drop me an email if you want to shoot the breeze about what you're up to as well.]

Re: Google Flights

#97

Post by [deleted] »

asdkl234890 wrote: post #83

A few days ago my gf tried to book a flight. Like most people, she starts with googleing flight tickets. And sees Google flights for the first time and starts using it. Gets to the point where Google kicks you off to the airline's own page, and that's where the trouble starts. She is forced to pick seats but can't, because the only ones available require being a specially background checked and known passenger. Event…

[deleted]

Re: Google Flights

#98

Post by walshemj »

dtf wrote: post #55
lucaspiller wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

++ I use Skyscanner here in Europe for regional and international flights, however really the prices are only useful as an indication. For example, one flight I found the cheapest option was Ryanair, but when I actually booked it the price was €10 cheaper than listed on Skyscanner.

I used to find that Ryanair had a tendency to lowball the aggregators, and then whack on ridiculous extra charges at the end of a tedious and lengthy purchase process. Have they stopped doing that now?

This is Ryanair SOP - you don't the the owner got to be the "most hated man in Ireland" for nothing do you.

Re: Google Flights

#99

Post by jtheory »

tworats wrote: post #79

Opened a few tabs with HN items in it. Booked my trip to SF, then started browsing the tabs. Hit this tab, tried it, found a flight for about $80 less than I just booked. Lesson learned: always read HN before doing actual work.

...I'm struggling to avoid downvoting this, just out of fear that someone might read this and take it seriously. :)

Imagine...

Benefit: saved $80 on a flight, once!

Cost: OMG, did I just spend 2 hours reading about people doing interesting things, instead of doing interesting things? Again?

Re: Google Flights

#100

Post by Harj »

This year I left booking my tickets back to the UK for the holidays until the last minute. The cheapest fare I could find myself, after what I considered to be extensive searching, was $1800.

I ran a contest on Flightfox (http://flightfox.com) and offered a $49 finders fee. Someone found me a fare for $1000 with only one stop (vs two on the fare I found).

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