This fall, Google Flights will, on select flights, refund you the difference if your airfare drops between the time you book your flight and when the plane takes off. How come? Because the company just introduced a new price tracking feature it is confident will show travelers the absolute lowest price possible on their flight.
Look for the price guarantee badge in order to get a refund if the price drops.
Gif by Google
Google Flights has long let travelers know whether the price for a flight is considered high, low, or typical for the time of year and route. But as of August 8, the booking platform also now notifies customers when it predicts that the price for flights they are tracking might go up soon or if it won’t get any lower.
For flights that it predicts won’t decrease any further in price—that are booked between August 13 and September 2, 2019, for travel completed by November 24, 2019—a price guarantee badge will crop up and Google Flights will refund you the difference if the price does in fact drop before it’s wheels-up time.
Google Flights stated that it will monitor prices and if the price drops any time before departure, it will alert customers via email once the flight takes off. The email will include a link to information on how to get the refund. There is a form to fill out; Google will deposit the difference into your bank account.
The price guarantee could crop up on any number of flights for which Google’s algorithms deem that the price you’re seeing is the lowest available before the flight departs—that includes both flights originating in the United States with domestic destinations as well as those that are international.
To get money back, the price difference must be greater than $5, and you can receive up to $500 back total for all of the flights booked with Google price guarantee.
Last week, the booking platform also added a “price graph” feature that shows travelers how much the airfare has changed—gone up or gone down—over the past few months. The price graph function is right next to the popular “date grid” feature, which is located below the flight search bar. The date grid allows fliers to see the lowest available airfares in a calendar format, for those travelers whose dates are flexible.
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