We've all heard it before: it's best to book a flight on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET to get the lowest fare. But is that really true? That's still up for debate, but now you can eliminate some of the guesswork when trying to get the best deals on travel, thanks to Google.
Just in time for holiday travel planning, the web giant on Monday updated Google Flights with a feature that will show you when prices are expected to increase for specific flights and the routes in which you're interested. The update also promises to make it easier to find good hotel deals and plan your trip on a mobile device.
Now, when you select a specific flight, you may get a notification letting you know when the current fare is expected to expire and how much you can save if you book right away. If you're looking at a certain route, but aren't set on a specific flight, Google may display a notification bar with tips for finding the best price, including recommendations for alternate airports or dates and expected price changes based on past prices for that route.
Google may, for instance, tell you something like "historically, 90 percent of the time the cheapest price on this route increased 7 days before departure by about $52."
You can opt to track a specific flight or route and receive email notifications letting you know when prices are expected to change. In the past, Google would only notify you when prices actually did increase or decrease significantly.
Google plans to roll out these new fare expiration and expected price jump notifications over the coming weeks everywhere its Flights tool is available.
Meanwhile, Google is also offering a better flight-finding experience on mobile devices with new features to let you track and manage your saved flights on your phone. There's also a new tab called "Deals" when searching for hotels that will show places offering cheaper-than-normal lodging in your selected destination.
This story originally appeared on PCMag
