A NEW online booking tool could mean passengers never pay more than they should for plane tickets ever again.
There’s nothing more frustrating than finding out that your airfare could have cost a lot less than what you paid for it, had you just waited a few days – but that feeling could soon be a thing of the past.
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Google is trialling a new booking system that would see people refunded if the price of their flight drops after they have bought their ticket.
The search engine will monitor the prices of flights booked via their online booking system Google Flights, and then pay back the difference if there’s a drop.
Currently, Google is testing the system on certain flights in the United States, on only three airlines — Alaskan, Hawaiian and Spirit.
Holidaymakers will be able to spot the qualifying flights by looking for a blue “price-guarantee” badge.
Anyone whose eligible flights dip in price will receive an email notification telling them their funds were automatically deposited in their Google Pay account.
Travellers will need to have one of those set one up in order for all the system to work.
Money from Google Pay can then be transferred to a linked bank account.
Jade Kessler, product manager at Google Flights said that they want to expand this far beyond the current trial in the future.
She told Bloomberg: “What we’re wanting to do is to take [our] price insights to the next level.
“We have hopes to offer this to as many users as possible and expand it beyond just Book on Google.”
The new tool isn’t the only way people can save money on flights using Google.
Fox News’ “CyberGuy” Kurt Knutsson explained how to use the site to avoid paying too much for flights.
In a video he said: “There’s an amazing feature on Google that lets you track the prices of flights to anywhere you want to go.
“Go to flights.google.com and put in the cities you want to travel to and from. Next select your dates of travel and tap ‘search’.”
After checking the price of his flights, Kurt then revealed how to set up notifications, so to find out when the costs change.
He continued: “You can check if the prices are typical for your trip. If they are on the price scale it shows, then there’s a chance they could drop lower on the scale.
“You get price alerts to receive emails the moment the price of the flight changes. It’s amazing.”
Meanwhile, Tiktoker @ndainternet revealed another method he uses to save money on flights, although it does require a bit more flexibility from travellers.
In a video, he said that he books his trips through Google Flights, but never begins his search with a specific destination in mind.
He explained: “Simply search on Google Flights and then don’t put anything in the destination tab and then simply click the map.”
By doing this, Google Flights will show the cheapest airfares for several different destinations, allowing holidaymakers to pick the cheapest ones.
Sun Online Travel put the hack to the test and it revealed return flights from London to Berlin for £40, to Milan for £20 and to Marrakech for £34, among many other deals.
Meanwhile, a money expert revealed how the day you book and the day you fly can impact how expensive your flights are.
And this dad revealed how he keeps costs down on his family holidays.
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