How to set up Google Flight alerts — A must for savvy travelers

  • Meghan Hunter

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    You know everyone here at MMS loves using the best credit cards for travel for free (or nearly free!) airfare.

    But sometimes it just makes more sense to pay cash for a ticket. If your travel dates aren’t flexible and you can find a cheap ticket, you can buy your airfare and save miles and points for a more expensive ticket another time. Google Flights has a price alert feature that can help you find a cheap ticket. Here’s how to set up a Google Flight alert.

    If airline miles aren’t an option, use Google Flights alerts to make your dollar go further (Like all the way to the Maldives!). (Photo by Joseph Hostetler/Million Mile Secrets)

    How to set up Google Flights alerts

    If you can’t find reasonably priced award seats, some might prefer to just buy a plane ticket and save your miles for a better value later. That’s when Google Flights price alerts come in handy. You can track prices for flights, to help you decide the best time to book — Google will even email you when your ticket price drops!

    Here’s how to set up Google Flight alerts. And check out our review of Google Flights search for more details.

    Step 1. Enter your travel information

    Enter your travel details into Google Flights (number of passengers, origin airport, destination airport, dates, etc.). You can enter up to six airports in each box (in case your origin and/or destination is flexible. If your dates are flexible, Google’s drop-down calendar is helpful for finding the current cheapest dates.

    Step 2. Click the “Track prices” toggle

    Right below the search criteria, you’ll see a “Track prices” toggle. Click the toggle to start tracking flights that match your search details. Google will then keep tabs and automatically notify you if there are changes to the price.

    If you aren’t signed in on Google, you won’t be able to track flights. A box will pop up, asking you to sign-in.

    Step 3. View the flights you’re tracking

    Once you move the “Track prices” toggle, you’ll see a black popup box that contains a “View all” link. You can click this link to see all the flights you’re tracking, as well as the flights you’ve tracked in the past.

    From this page, you can see Google’s data on the flights you’ve asked it to track. It won’t have much to tell you immediately after you’ve set an alert. But in a few days, you can look back and see how the prices have changed by clicking the “Price History” drop-down menu.

    Here’s a flight I tracked a few months ago. You can see how the prices changed with Google’s line chart.

    Google will tell you when your flight price will likely increase. And it will notify you right before it predicts an increase. It will also tell you how confident it is in its prediction.f

    Step 4. Monitor your email

    Google will email you an alert if the price of your flight decreases. This way you don’t have to waste all your time checking throughout the day.

    Here’s an example of a flight alert email. The ticket price decreased by $156. And for good measure, Google listed a couple other similar flights to help me see all my options.

    You can click “Manage Price Tracking” at the bottom of the email to go straight to the flight tracking page with the line graphs. And you can click “Unsubscribe From Emails” if you don’t need the alerts anymore.

    Is the Google Flights fare predictor legit?

    Google says that all its price insights are based on fares “observed in the last 12 months for trips in the same season, of similar length, with the same origin and destination, number of stops, class, and airline.”

    Google attempts to predict whether prices will drop before you book your ticket, to help you decide if you should jump on a fare or gamble a bit. They also provide a meter on the page that shows you if prices are less or more than usual.

    If you see a note that says “prices are likely to increase” by a certain amount in the coming days, Google Flights is confident you should buy now. Again, it’s analyzing price trends of past flights, but nothing is certain.

    Don’t forget to use the right credit card to earn a bonus on airfare purchases

    If you’ve found a cheap ticket through Google Flight alerts and are ready to buy, remember to use a credit card that earns bonus miles or points for airfare purchases, like:

    Check out our full list of the best airline credit cards for more options.

    Bottom line

    Google Flight alerts can track airfare trends to help you decide the best time to purchase airfare. Google will email you when your flight price will likely increase, and notify you right before it predicts an increase.

    The tool is great, but airfare prices can swing frequently. I’d like to be able to set a certain dollar amount on my Google Flights email alerts, so I won’t get an alert unless the price change is over that amount. That way Google won’t blow up my inbox with fare changes.

    Do you use Google Flight alerts or a similar tool? Let us know if it’s saved you money!

    If you want to stay on top of other miles & points tricks like this one, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter!

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)
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