Introduction to Google Flights Settings

There’s no doubt it in our minds, Google Flights is the most user friendly yet powerful Flight Search Engine on the internet. In this guide we’re going to walk you through the basics.

To start, pull up Google Flights

Home Airport: The airport you are flying from
Destination: The airport you are flying to
Start/End Trip Dates: The dates you are flying to destination and LEAVING your destination. Please note that this is not arrive back home dates. Flights like red eye flights will be landing the next day.
Map: One of the most powerful tools

Desktop / Mobile

For this blog, we’re going to go over the basics behind finding a flight on Google Flights.

To start, put in your Home Airport, Destination, and the dates you wish to fly.

For our example, I’ll be searching from Huntsville, AL to Washington D.C. on April 8 – 12.

At first glance you’ll notice how customizable your search can be and quickly you can gather information from a single search. Lets go through these options and explain them.

Type of flight

Above the Home Airport you’ll see the type of flight option. It is set to default “Round-Trip”. Round Trip means that you will be flying there and back (Also known as a Return Trip), One way is not having a return flight, and multicity is where you can build as few or as many 1 way trips (For instance HSV to MAD, MAD to AMS, and AMS back to HSV). We cover how to take advantage of Multi-city trips in our multi-city guide.

Number of Passengers

Fill out the number of passengers for your search. This will update the shown price. Sometimes you will find that a ticket for 2 adults is over twice as much the price for 1 adult (For instance price for 1 adult is $200 and for 2 adults is $450). That is because the airline only has 1 ticket at $200 and the next cheapest ticket is $250. Infants are for children who have not reached their 2^nd birthday. Children who are under 2 can fly for free (except taxes that you still pay). If you select “On lap” the child will fly for free. If you select “In seat” you will be charged for a ticket.

Typically in the United States, we don’t see a difference between adult tickets and children tickets.

Number of Passengers

Fill out the number of passengers for your search. This will update the shown price. Sometimes you will find that a ticket for 2 adults is over twice as much the price for 1 adult (For instance price for 1 adult is $200 and for 2 adults is $450). That is because the airline only has 1 ticket at $200 and the next cheapest ticket is $250. Infants are for children who have not reached their 2^nd birthday. Children who are under 2 can fly for free (except taxes that you still pay). If you select “On lap” the child will fly for free. If you select “In seat” you will be charged for a ticket.

Typically in the United States, we don’t see a difference between adult tickets and children tickets.

Stops

Select the Maximum number of stops or layovers you are OK with flying. Typically, with most domestic flights we see 1 and rarely 2. For international flights, especially from smaller airports we can see 3 or more stops to get to your final destination.

Airlines

Select the Airlines you wish to search. All airlines not selected will not show up on your search result. You can also search by airline alliance. Typically you search by alliance when you belong to a point structure. US airlines align with the alliances as follows: Oneworld – American, SkyTeam – Delta, Star Alliance – United

Bags

Every airline has different rule around baggage. The easiest way to find total price is to put in the number of bags your group into the search. Please note, you can only enter 1 Carry-on bag and 1 Checked bag per person. If you are planning on carrying more baggage you will have to input it into the airline.

Price

Slide the bar to input the maximum price you are willing to pay for the entire group (If you have a group of 3 and willing to pay $300 per person, input $900)

Times

This one is a bit tricky to understand at first glance. The “Outbound” is the flight you are leaving on and the “Return” is your return flight. Below is selected “Outbound”. We have two bars, 1 for Departure and one for Arrival. Each bar has two settings, the left and right. The left circle on departure dictates the earliest you are willing to fly. If you set it for 10AM, you will not see a flight that departs your airport before 10AM. The right hand circle on Outbound is the latest you are willing to leave. For instance, if you select 6PM, you will not see a flight that leaves after 6PM. I find this setting to be the best to avoid red eye flights. The same applies for Arrival the right dictates the earliest you are willing to arrive (again good for avoiding red eye flights) and the left circle to dictate the latest you will arrive at your destination. The return tab has the same settings for the return flight.

Connecting Airports

You can deselect any Connecting Airport that you do not wish to stop over and set the longest you wish a layover to be. The bar works like the previous example. You may want at least an hour at a layover, so you can slide the left circle to the right, and the left circle to set the maximum time during a layover by sliding it to the left.

Duration

Set the length of time your entire flight will last (flight time + layover time).