New Google Flights Features Will Tell You the Cheapest Time to Book

Trying to book flights can feel like the lottery. Some days you’ll score a cheap fare and by the next, it will be double the price. Picking the best time to pick a flight is an art, but can it possibly be a science? Google Flights has launched a new feature that uses historical data to crunch numbers and find patterns in airline fares, helping you to find the best time to book a flight for your dates.

Find the cheapest time to book with Google Flights

The new ‘cheapest time to book’ insights on Google Flights are designed to help travellers decide whether now is the best time to book or whether a lower price is likely in the future.

This is done by using historical pricing trends from the past several years and aggregating data from various flight routes and date combinations to see when they’re typically the lowest. It’s not a guarantee that your flight will be cheaper, but it is useful if you’re willing to play a bit of a waiting game with your bookings.

This feature is in addition to current Google Flights information, which already shows you whether your chosen airfare is being sold at a below or above-average price.

A Google spokesperson confirmed that the ‘new cheapest time to book’ feature is available in Australia.

However, insights will only be shown for your route if Google Flights is able to identify a consistently low price window for your given search. So if nothing comes up for your chosen flight it just means there isn’t enough historical data for Google to give any insight.

Google Flights can then also offer price tracking features, which will notify you when your flight price drops.

These notifications can be connected to your Google account and sent via email.

Check out the new features for yourself here.

Travel booking insights

Out of the data from these new features, Google also presented some interesting statistics about flight booking trends.

The data showed that the best time to book a flight for Christmas domestically in the U.S. is in early October, around 71 days before departure. Internationally, meanwhile, from the U.S. to Europe shows that the best time to book is 72 days ahead or earlier. Prices tend to increase in the 10 weeks before travel, so earlier is best.

This data is, of course, specific to U.S. flights, but similar insights can also be found on Australian routes if you do some digging on Google Flights.

With Christmas coming up again (scary, I know) it’s a good time to start doing some research on airfares around Australia, and hopefully, Google Flights will make that chore a bit easier! Just don’t forget to pack your travel essentials when you go.