Google Now is always introducing new features and the newest feature that’s been added is the ability to receive updates on flight prices that you have searched for.
I have to be honest, I had never heard of Google Flights before tonight. However, I am a big Google Now user so I will definitely start using it from now on. The last time I flew, I loved the fact that Google Now reminded me when to leave for the airport and automatically displayed my boarding passes (with QR codes) which could be scanned prior to boarding.
This new automatic feature allows Google to ascertain your intentions and presents the useful info on that basis. If you use Google Flights to look for flights, Google will make a note and drop a card into your Google Now screen to let you know when the price of that flight changes.
I wasn’t able to replicate this yet on my device but here’s an example of what it will look like:
As always, this feature will roll out slowly and may start appearing as a Google Now card, providing of course you use the Google Flights website to search for flights.
Has anyone used Google Flights to search for flights or have you seen a Google Now flight price monitor card show up yet?
I have been using google flights for some time. The google flights search is good to get an idea on timings and pricing. I would always double check pricing with hipmunk and book via the airlines website. The cards do come in handy, its very much like tripit, however you are getting free alerts instead of having to pay the subscription fee of tripit pro. The alerts are great such as flight delays or gate changes. However with all these services they are only good if you have data. This was not always the case for me when travelling around… Read more »
I couldn’t seem to get Google Now to tell me about my flights and travel that I had booked – even though the documentation was in my email.
Does it have to be in the ‘inbox’, or can it be filed/tagged elsewhere?
The data has to be embedded in the email in a computer understandable format. I think it might work for a few american journeys without, but nothing local.
Here’s how you do it, if you are the airline
https://developers.google.com/schemas/tutorials/google-now-cards
I could be wrong here, but I think flights and travel bookings might have to directly sent to your gmail account that Google Now runs on.
Example. If you book tickets through work and the booking email is sent to your work email, Google Now won’t pick it up.
Again, I could be wrong.
It’s in my Gmail account, but I could never get it to work. Maybe it’s a US only thing for now.
I’ve had stuff forwarded to me that’s appeared in the Cards. Helps if it’s from specific airlines normally.
Similar to you, I’d never heard of Google Flights before either – looks useful though – I find the Qantas/Virgin sites a PITA to use to search for best flight prices (probably deliberately on their part!!)
The Google Flight search is a ‘You Fail’
As an experiment, I tossed a simple search at it:
BNE-SYD return, Economy, 1 adult, Monday 1st December 2014.
Trip down between 7am and 11am, return between 4pm and 8pm.
It completely failed to find the cheapest Qantas and Virgin deals, showing Virgin fares that are about $100 more than the cheapest on the Virgin site, and Qantas fares that are about $400 more than the cheapest on the Qantas site.
Prefer to use Expedia although their latest upgrades are a PITA as well. Webjet is also good. Find Google Flights doesn’t always find the best priced flights.