Google flights launches – hidden extras and incomplete flight results

Posted on April 1st, 2013. Written by bookingbusinesstravel.

Back in 2011 I blogged about Google’s purchase of ITA, a company that develops flight and price search technology. Since that time, Google made the search engine available in the US and it has only featured domestic US flights.

Google has been very slow to (at least publicly) do anything with the purchase, despite a price tag of $700M dollar in cash!

ITA has continued to provide a more comprehensive search engine on its ITA Matrix Website, listed in my ‘useful sites page’ which provides published fares. It is very detailed and can be useful, especially when searching for fares that originate from outside the UK.

However, it has its limitations. It doesn’t provide any “booking functions” but simply suggests you contact a travel agent or airline to book. And it doesn’t offer discounted fares. Neither does it feature many of the “no-frills” or web-only airlines, making most European flight search meaningless.

Very quietly, and without fanfare, Google Flights has now been released in the UK.

The Booking Business Travel ethos is to help you book travel independently at the lowest cost, and impartially, by recommending the best tools to do this.

To date I have recommended Skyscanner as the best “neutral” search engine because, although they earn referral commissions from travel agents, unlike travel agents themselves (Expedia etc) they have systematically included direct links to airlines to compare prices. E.g. Ryanair and easyJet.

So what do I think of Google Flights?

As with any search engine, I apply the “low-cost-airline test”.

Business travel is by its very nature very schedule driven, and it is essential that all timing options be made available, impartially to the business traveller. In this respect, Google go some way to assist – but with noteworthy failings.

I compared two routes on Google Flights and was very disappointed by the results:

London to Dublin Outbound 10^th April back 11^th April

Aer Lingus was featured but when selected, Google Flights directed me to Bravofly, an Irish travel agent, to fulfill the booking.

I am shocked by this! For two reasons:

Higher fares than directly from Aer Lingus

Bravofly quoted £145.84 compared to Aer Lingus direct at £142.98
Then came the hidden extras.  After adding the passenger name, the payment charges of £12.18 for AMEX or £7.10 for MasterCard or Visa Electron appeared!
And the charge is per passenger. Thus for two passengers the overall extra cost for having searched and accepted  Google Flights offer would be approximately £30

British Airways

As you’d expect, BA was offered directly and the fares provided came directly from ba.com
This is how it should be.
After selection, a ‘deep link’ takes you to the onward booking pages.

Ryanair

Schedules are offered but with no air fares.
After selecting flights, Google links you to the Ryanair home page and you have to repeat the search all over again!

London to Copenhagen: Outbound 10^th April back 11^th April

Scandinavian Airlines

Google flights offered correct fares directly from SAS, with a deep link to the airline booking page.
Again, this is how it should be.

easyJet

No prices, just schedules, and as with Ryanair, a link to the home page to repeat the search.
This really isn’t good enough.

Norwegian Airlines

Prices provided but as with Aer Lingus, only from Bravofly with similar price differences and extra credit card charges

Skyscanner offered lower fares on Aer Lingus of £142.98 return and no credit card charges, saving, for two passengers paying by AMEX £30.08!

And we had the comparison fares from Ryanair and BA all on one page

Google Map View

If you’re searching for an overview of fares, the Google Map View should be very helpful, but Google includes a disclaimer to say that some airlines are not available:

Ryanair, Lufthansa, easyJet, Thomas Cook, Aer Lingus.

I also noticed that Wizz airlines are excluded

Summary

Yes, Google Flights “look-and-feel” is slick. Very slick. But what is most important? It should be content and pricing, surely? And much of the “instant search” must rely on cached memory, which may not be accurate.

The other gaping hole in Google Flights is the inability to search for premium economy, business or first class flights.

And Google will not send you to whichever website has the cheapest fare, relying instead on a couple of agents with hidden fees.

When researching flight options, you should use a search engine that checks both the airlines direct – and travel agencies like Expedia. Expedia make no extra fees or credit card charges. So the price you see is the price you pay.

Skyscanner does this efficiently. It includes authorised availability data from Ryanair and easyJet in addition to  ba.com. It also offers Premium Economy, Business and First Class. Visit my Skyscanner page for your next search and don’t waste time on Google Flights.

Not yet, anyway….

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