How to book a flight on Google Flights for your next trip

• You can book a flight on Google Flights up to a year in advance, and even monitor your flight prices to buy at the best time.
• Google Flights usually finds the cheapest fare for your flight, but it’s always a good idea to run into other sites like Expedia to get the best deal.
• Google Flights also offers trips for the cheapest flights from your city in the next six months.
• Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.

I travel by plane about once a month, and several times a year with my family of four, so finding the best rates on air travel is a fairly regular theme in my life.

Before booking a trip, I always use Google Flights as my first search tool. Although Google’s flight booking platform isn’t always the cheapest route, it’s one of the easiest ways to find flights.

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How to book a flight on Google Flights

To book a flight with Google Flights, you must first log into your Google account on your Mac or PC. You can go through most of the process without doing it, but your search will be lost if you close your browser without logging in.

1. Move towards Google Flights on your PC or Mac computer.

2. Click on “Round Trip” to select from the drop-down menu if you are looking for a round trip, one way or multi-city ticket.

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3. Next, next to the ticket type option, click “1 passenger” to select the number of tickets you need. Click on the blue “+” icon to add a passenger to this category, or on the “-” sign to take off the passenger.

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4. Then click on “Economy” to select the ticket class you are looking for.

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5. In the box at the bottom left, enter the airport code or the name of the city or airport from which you would depart. In the right box, enter the airport code or the name of the city or airport you want to go to.

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6. For a return flight, in the boxes on the far right, click the box on the left to select the date you want to leave in the popup window. Then click on the date you want to return to in the pop-up calendar. You can click on the arrow in the middle of the box on the right to see the next month.

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seven. For a one-way flight, click on the box on the right and select the date of your flight from the contextual calendar.

8. For a multi-city trip, select a date for your first flight by clicking on the box on the far right, then click on the blue “Add flight” button at the bottom left of the window. Another flight should appear under the first flight. Select the destinations and the date of your trip. You can add up to five flights to a multi-city trip.

• Multi-city travel is useful if you want to visit multiple places and easily find and book your tickets at once. For example, with a multi-city search, you can find the best deals for your three-week trip from New York to New Orleans, Italy, and then back to New York without having to do multiple searches.

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9. Once you have selected your dates, click on the blue “DONE” button at the bottom of the window.

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ten. When you have finished entering all of your flight information, click the blue “Search” button at the bottom of the window.

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11. On the next page, a list of flights will be displayed. If you chose the round trip, these will be the options for your departure flight. If you have selected several cities, these will be the options for your first flight. The first three results are what Google assesses your “best options”, which it decides by comparing their convenience and price with other options.

12. You can change the order and comparison of flights by clicking on the arrows next to “Sort by:” at the top right and selecting from the drop-down menu how you want to sort your flight options. You can filter the flights using the options at the top. You can also see more flights by clicking on the “More” drop-down menu option (although they are much more expensive).

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13. Select your flight by clicking on it. If you have selected a return flight, on the next page also select your return flight. If multiple cities, select all of your remaining flights.

14. Once you have selected all of your flights, you will be redirected to a page with the flight (s) you have selected, the price, your booking options and any other information relevant to your trip, such as additional baggage charges.

15. Under “Reservation options”, click on the blue “Select” box next to the airline or travel site from which you wish to purchase your ticket.

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16. You will now be redirected directly to the airline or travel site page to finalize your reservation, or if the option says “Book on Google”, you can fill in your information and purchase the ticket directly on Google Flights.

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