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Get away with Google Flights

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Re: Get away with Google Flights

#61

Post by toyg »

dheera wrote: post #55
toyg wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> changing the language and country of the website changes ticket prices That's a feature. Nothing will cost the same if you buy it in Nairobi or in London, because price is a function of demand.

So we need an API to search all the languages and countries, pay in the appropriate currency, abstract this "feature" away along with the language barrier, and give me the lowest price. I hope Google will do that. :)

It would likely break all sorts of TOS agreements at various levels, and wouldn't last a month.

There are industries where profits are huge and disruption is badly needed. Airlines are not one of them, afaik; ever since low-cost became a thing, they've been under constant economic pressure and usually operate on razor-thin margins, at least in Europe. Mid-size companies have all but disappeared, even giants like British Airways and KLM have been permanently de-structured.

Flying is an expensive and risky business, piling up the pressure is likely to generate even more safety issues than we already have today. If you're all about price, just fly with RyanAir and be sure that nobody can ask you for less money than they do.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#62

Post by nadams »

dheera wrote: post #38
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the same reason I can't just renew a domain at Network Solutions without going through eight different pages trying to upsell me things (and often defaulting to checking on those services). Expedia, Orbitz, etc make money via nag screens and upsells. They have no incentive to make the experience positive or easy. Google seems to.

I switched to Namecheap; they sell stuff but are not annoying about it. Google Domains also looks promising but I'm waiting for them to not be in beta lest they decide to scrap the product. Google would win me over if they offered free SSL certificates. In fact I think they should go ahead and disrupt the SSL industry by doing that too. Nobody should have to pay for a silly cryptographic signature. That would disrupt…

> ...free SSL certificates. In fact I think they should go ahead and disrupt the SSL industry

StartSSL already offers free SSL certificates - and they haven't disrupted the industry. Even if Google started offering free SSL certificates - it's only a band-aid to the problem not a solution.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#63

Post by nadams »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #36
dheera wrote: post #33

Awesome. I can never understand what antiquated database and UI the other flight reservation websites are using. Simple database queries take 10+ seconds, and then you have to click N more times to get the taxes included. Why can't I query for SELECT * FROM tickets WHERE sqrt((destination_latitude-desired_latitude)^2 - (destination_longitude-desired_longitude)^2) with proper geoindexing and sharding this query should…

For the same reason I can't just renew a domain at Network Solutions without going through eight different pages trying to upsell me things (and often defaulting to checking on those services). Expedia, Orbitz, etc make money via nag screens and upsells. They have no incentive to make the experience positive or easy. Google seems to.

I've switched from 1&1 to gandi.net - and while they are a little more expensive it's been pretty smooth. Also they support TOTP which is a huge awesome in my book (I used TOTP with facebook, Microsoft account, google, source code committing etc).

I'm convinced that for every DNS related change at 1&1 - there is a guy that manually makes the change.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#65

Post by Nicholas_C »

RogerL wrote: post #60
radiorental wrote: post #32

Don't know where they're getting their data from. Boston-dublin in Oct is over $1300 on google flight with Aerlingus Same flight directly on the airline's website is $940. Good luck with that, Google.

I just tried SFO to Mexico City. $447 on Google ($427 with a 12 hour layover), vs $352 on Kayak, and $338 on priceline.

That's very interesting to me. Either they're getting data from the same place and marking the price up differently or they're getting data from separate places that are marking the prices up differently.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#66

Post by Nicholas_C »

dheera wrote: post #48
mobiplayer wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is my understanding that they contact various providers in real-time, so they give them a time window to come back with their data.

Yeah, this is terrible engineering design IMHO. The providers should just provide some kind of firehose of updates to the booking websites which can then cache the data appropriately. Also they should fix their cache implementations. I've had countless times on the AA website where it says a ticket is available; then when I try to book it it says it's not available; then when I go back to the home page and search aga…

I've had the same exact issue on AA.com as well. I gave up and booked it on Expedia.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#67

Post by stavrianos »

Nicholas_C wrote: post #65
RogerL wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tried SFO to Mexico City. $447 on Google ($427 with a 12 hour layover), vs $352 on Kayak, and $338 on priceline.

That's very interesting to me. Either they're getting data from the same place and marking the price up differently or they're getting data from separate places that are marking the prices up differently.

Or both.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#68

Post by jxf »

I've been using Google Flights since the middle of last year and love it. However, as a frequent traveler for business/conferences, I think there are some things people should be aware of:

* Google's data seems to be not as fresh as Kayak or Hipmunk's is. There have been multiple times when I've tried to book a flight via GF only to be told that there were no seats left when I arrive on the airline's page. I suspect part of the greatly improved speed comes at the cost of aggressive caching that runs a risk of things being out of date.

* Google's data is all over the map on pricing. Very frequently the airline's price will be much cheaper than GF. And more than once (especially on United or American Airlines) I've noticed that if I book directly through an airline over a VPN, I save several hundred bucks versus if I click through from Google Flights or Kayak. Conversely, sometimes GF is less expensive and when I land on the airline's page it's more expensive.

I think the best thing to use it for is route discoverability: which kind of planes and which airlines fly to which locations, on which days at which times? It's also great for doing complex open-jaw routes or hidden-city fares -- and since those routes don't change very often, the data is more likely to be accurate.

Re: Get away with Google Flights

#69

Post by zatkin »

jxf wrote: post #68

I've been using Google Flights since the middle of last year and love it. However, as a frequent traveler for business/conferences, I think there are some things people should be aware of: * Google's data seems to be not as fresh as Kayak or Hipmunk's is. There have been multiple times when I've tried to book a flight via GF only to be told that there were no seats left when I arrive on the airline's page. I suspect…

Which VPN gets you the best deals?

Also, do you book on Tuesdays?

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