Booking a flight is arguably one of the most stressful parts of planning a trip, thanks to fluctuating prices that tend to spike just before you’re about to book. But a new Google feature aims to save consumers from overspending by notifying them of fare changes before they actually happen.
When searching for a certain flight or route using the Google Flights website, a notification may appear letting you know when the price of the flight you’re looking at is expected to increase.
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For example, if you were looking up a particular Air Canada flight from Edmonton to Toronto on Tuesday afternoon, a notification may appear noting that the flight you have selected to expected to increase by $100 in the next eight hours.
If you are looking up prices for a particular route, say Toronto to New York City, the tool will also be able to recommend money-saving hacks such as alternate airports, or departure dates. The tool will also alert you if flight prices are expected to drop.
The new features, which are expected to roll out to the Google Flights website in the coming weeks, predict possible changes in prices using historical flight-pricing data.
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Google has yet to release a stand alone app for its flight-tracking service; however, smartphone users will now be able to track and manage their saved flight searches through the company’s mobile website.