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Get away with Google Flights

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Re: Get away with Google Flights

#11

Post by Bedon292 »

what_ever wrote: post #7
Bedon292 wrote: post #6

Not sure why they are just posting this now, it has existed for quite a while. It also has hotel searching. Not all companies have prices displayed on the site, but it links directly to the companies rather than paying additional fees through a third party.

You don't always pay additional fees through a third party. If only flight ticket pricing was that easy. There have been instances when I found better deals on other sites compared Google (all of them happen to be international flights). The interface on the other hand is amazing.

True, there are not always fees, but they are around. International flights have been a bit harder on all of the major US based flight searches though, right? Have not flown international in quite some time, so not as familiar with them.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#12

Post by mootothemax »

Bedon292 wrote: post #9
mootothemax wrote: post #3

This makes me feel somewhat uneasy. On the one hand, it works really well. On the other, are Google aiming to take over every aggregation service out there? Something about the dominant search engine moving into this space just doesn't sit right with me.

Search engines are all about aggregation, it seems like a logical step for them. Bing, Yahoo, and even AOL also have their own travel sites, so it is not just the dominant search engine, it is all of them. It is also nice to not have to support some third party by buying tickets through them. Just compare the prices and go directly to the airline.

Bing, Yahoo, and even AOL also have their own travel sites

The difference is, if I type WAW to LHR into Google, I get flight listings with prices and availability.

You're right that Bing, Yahoo etc. have their own separate travel sites, I've yet to see similar results in their search results.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#13

Post by __Joker »

mootothemax wrote: post #3

This makes me feel somewhat uneasy. On the one hand, it works really well. On the other, are Google aiming to take over every aggregation service out there? Something about the dominant search engine moving into this space just doesn't sit right with me.

Any personal assistant app can't do away from this aggregations. These are the first and low hanging fruits when it comes to personal assistants, given that more and more the personal assistants and the search engines will morph into one.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#14

Post by hyperliner »

mootothemax wrote: post #12
Bedon292 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search engines are all about aggregation, it seems like a logical step for them. Bing, Yahoo, and even AOL also have their own travel sites, so it is not just the dominant search engine, it is all of them. It is also nice to not have to support some third party by buying tickets through them. Just compare the prices and go directly to the airline.

Bing, Yahoo, and even AOL also have their own travel sites The difference is, if I type WAW to LHR into Google, I get flight listings with prices and availability. You're right that Bing, Yahoo etc. have their own separate travel sites, I've yet to see similar results in their search results.

But how is that different from typing "2+3" or "what is the speed of light?" or "what is the temperature in San francisco CA?" in the Google search bar? I think it is all about convenience.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#15

Post by TeMPOraL »

mootothemax wrote: post #12
Bedon292 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search engines are all about aggregation, it seems like a logical step for them. Bing, Yahoo, and even AOL also have their own travel sites, so it is not just the dominant search engine, it is all of them. It is also nice to not have to support some third party by buying tickets through them. Just compare the prices and go directly to the airline.

Bing, Yahoo, and even AOL also have their own travel sites The difference is, if I type WAW to LHR into Google, I get flight listings with prices and availability. You're right that Bing, Yahoo etc. have their own separate travel sites, I've yet to see similar results in their search results.

> The difference is, if I type WAW to LHR into Google, I get flight listings with prices and availability.

Yes, and I think that's a Good Thing. Google rightly knows that when I type "WAW to LHR", I want to know about the flight, not about where to find out about that flight.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#16

Post by TeMPOraL »

mootothemax wrote: post #3

This makes me feel somewhat uneasy. On the one hand, it works really well. On the other, are Google aiming to take over every aggregation service out there? Something about the dominant search engine moving into this space just doesn't sit right with me.

Google's stated mission is to "organize world's information". This fits it perfectly.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#18

Post by bemmu »

I love the flexibility this has and after giving it a serious go I never went back to Kayak.

If you know exactly when and where to fly, Kayak is great. But with any uncertainty, Google Flights is better for exploring. Maybe you know when to fly, but not when you want to come back. Or maybe you don't even know where you want to fly, in which case you can get destination suggestions. It's also a lot snappier.

Now with this flight data they have, I'd imagine being able to just use Google Maps route search to go from A to B such that it would also include flights where applicable. While it kind of does, I am still able to think better routes myself. For example if I search from Tokushima, Japan -> San Francisco, USA, it suggests I should fly from Tokushima. Where actually it's a lot cheaper with almost no time difference to go by bus to Osaka first instead.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#19

Post by giarc »

tarp wrote: post #10

ITA Software was acquired by Google awhile back. https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

This site allows users to search for hidden city ticketing. There are some good instruction pages out there. I've never personally used it since I live in Canada and spoke and hub isn't really a thing up here.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#20

Post by dsr_ »

gringocl wrote: post #17
tarp wrote: post #10

ITA Software was acquired by Google awhile back. https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

This is an awesome platform, if only you could purchase through this!

That's where the money comes from -- and ITA's mission was to be a backend for other people, who would deal with the expensive customer service side themselves.

Presumably as a Google service, customer service isn't a priority anymore.

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