Google has launched a metasearch for tickets. Review of the service for searching for plane tickets Google Air tickets Google plane tickets

I often go on trips and buy air tickets.
And I also often suffer from the interface of air ticket aggregators.
I can't select a ticket or make a purchase.

Case

I know exactly where I want to fly.
I know approximately how many days.
And approximately on what dates - for example this month.


This time I wanted to fly to Serfaus - this is a ski village in Austria.
Fly no earlier than January 5th, return later than January 15th. For 6-8 days.


Now we need to find best ticket under these conditions.
“Best” in my case is a combination of objective price and subjective convenience of the flight - departure/arrival time, departure airport, airline, and so on.

How the case is solved by the airline ticket aggregator

  1. I transform the village of Serfaus into the three nearest airports - Munich, Innsbruck and Zurich using Google maps.
  2. I go to the air ticket aggregator. I find a tool like "Calendar" low prices".
  3. I open it in three tabs for three airports.
  4. I choose January.
  5. I start clicking on every day of January to see the departure/arrival time and ticket price.
  6. If I like a ticket, I poke it to make sure that the ticket really exists. Because cache.
  7. To remember which day I liked which ticket, I write it down in a notebook or table.

The last three points are where I suffer.
Because I don't want to poke and check. I don't want to switch between tabs.
I want to see really available tickets with departure time and price and choose one of them.
And buy it.


But in the end, I don’t find the right ticket in a psychologically comfortable time.
And without making a purchase, I leave.

How the case should be solved

  1. I indicate “Serfaus” in the “Where” field in the aggregator.
  2. I choose approximate dates.
  3. I choose the appropriate duration.
  4. I receive a list of tickets to purchase.
  5. I choose a suitable ticket and buy it.

... aggregators do not have such a work scenario.

Thoughts

  • Aggregators do not know how to work with my script.
  • We are in 2017, web 3.0, *aas, microservices and, in general, soon to Mars.
  • There are a million APIs for searching for tickets, I'll add my blackjack.

Finding a solution

Half an hour of googling showed that in 2017 there is no free API for searching for tickets.
None of the aggregators.

  • But of course, there are a lot of affiliate programs, you say!
  • Yes, there are a lot. But they do not provide access to the API either at all (put our banner/widget and send traffic to our site), or they do, but after an opaque procedure for moderating applications for access to the API.
    One of the largest services writes this way - fill out an application, we’ll think about it for 4 weeks, then maybe we’ll respond.

Google has the only available API. Called QPX Express.

Solution

Using QPX and Google App Script, in 70 minutes an add-on was written for a Google spreadsheet, which reads from it where you need to fly, searches for tickets, and writes all the options with prices into it.


The result looks like this:


At the top of the table I fill in from/to (IATA airport codes separated by commas) and in what date range I want to fly. I indicate how many days (in a comma-separated list) I am willing to spend on the trip.
On the second half of the sheet I get the result - a list of air tickets sorted by price.
On one sheet of paper I have all the suitable air travel options.
Using the built-in filtering tools, I can select the dates/times I need.


All you have to do is go to the airline’s website and buy a ticket.

Disadvantage of the solution

The downside of the solution is that access to the API costs money (the first 50 requests per day are free, then $0.035 per request), so it was not possible to create a microsite for everyone.


It is not yet possible to enter "Serfaus" into the "Where" field. I think this will be solved by one of the Google APIs.

I want it too

If you want to search for tickets the same way, here are instructions on how to do it.
You can simply test the QPX API for free.

What's next

Finding a hotel is exactly the same case, which closes just as inconveniently.


And the ideal service is the one that will give the best pair of air tickets and hotels according to the specified flexible search criteria.


If you know which services can provide a free/paid API for searching for tickets and/or hotels, write in a comment/DM.

Skyscanner, Momondo and other ticket metasearch engines find themselves in a very awkward position: the airline ticket metasearch service “Google Flights” was launched in Russia. The service is available in Russian and displays prices in rubles. Among the additional features, it is worth noting “recommended destinations”, which is formed based on the history of your search, search without a specific direction (just specify the date and look on the map where and how long you can fly to). Filtering results according to various criteria, a “low price calendar” and other functions typical for ticket search engines are also present.

In the near future, flight search results will begin to appear directly in a regular Google search for queries like “tickets to Paris” or “flight to Egypt.” By and large, this is the only advantage of the service, because... it can receive a large amount of traffic from the “mother” search engine, first of all this concerns mobile search, because Google is leading the way here by integrating this search into Android and iOS operating systems. In addition, we can note the very high speed of the service.

“I noticed that Google Flights provides links to the websites of the airlines themselves, as well as Agent.ru - an agency under the Transport Clearing House ( TCH deals with those who do not have interline agreements - I.Sh.). If this continues, then search engines working with online travel agencies will, after some time, be needed only for purchasing airline tickets - like Turkish Airlines, for which it is now up to 20%. The future of online sales of airline tickets lies in direct “metasearch-airline website” schemes, without additional intermediaries,” commented a representative of one of the agencies, who wished to remain anonymous.

Nice try, Google, but doesn’t Aeroflot have a website and different distances between seats in the same type of aircraft? Well, +7-8-800, of course, is also a small thing, but untidy.

“On the one hand, we are glad to welcome another service to our market, because users only benefit from fair competition. On the other hand, in our opinion, the product could have been better prepared to enter our market - now OneTwoTrip and some other companies have a better range of airlines and more competitive prices,” says OneTwoTrip agency representative Artur Bolshakov.

“The product is excellent, but personally I miss the mobile version. In addition, there are frankly few OTAs (I see agent.ru) and the comparison is not always in favor of Google Flights. Although in terms of speed of response, there are no questions, everything is really very fast,” says Aviasales representative Janis Dzenis, “Well, I can also comment like this:

November 17, 2015 Google is officially launched Google Flights (Air tickets) in Russia.

Google Flights allows you to compare the cost of flights from different companies. This can be done either at www.google.ru/flights or on the Google search page. Flight prices are indicated in rubles.

“Starting today, you can find and compare airfare prices directly on Google Search. If you haven't found a suitable ticket, save your travel itinerary and monitor price changes in Google Now.", - reported on the Google Russia page on Google+.

In addition, the service allows you to search for routes directly on the map and filter available flights by air carrier, flight duration and number of transfers. Users also have access to information about partner hotels in the selected city.

The service also offers popular flight routes from the user’s city of residence; a map of current destinations with flights and prices indicated on it (displayed when you hover over the desired city); price calendar, where the user can compare the cost of tickets for the same flight on different dates. The “I’m feeling lucky” button will help you select a random flight based on the specified parameters.

Google Flights is available to users on desktop computers, smartphones and tablets. To purchase a ticket for the selected flight, the service will redirect the user to the partner’s website.

The screenshots below show the process of searching for a flight:

Let us recall that Google Flight Search was launched in 2011 based on technology purchased from ITA. Flight Search has not become popular with users due to limited functionality and the absence of the most common low-cost flights, for example, Ryanair, in the search database.

Official site " Google Flights» will help you buy plane tickets online cheaply and without commission. You can buy cheap air tickets on the Google Flights website to all popular destinations.

The Google Flights plane ticket search service will help you find suitable air tickets in a matter of seconds, and will show you which airline or which ticket agency can buy them cheaper. After this, you can go to the ticket seller’s website and buy the necessary air tickets there.

The Google Flights ticket search engine itself does not sell air tickets, but only searches for options that meet your criteria.

The official Google Flights website will show you the flight schedule for the destination you need.

If you have not yet decided where you want to fly, then the Google Flights website provides a list of popular destinations and indicates the cost of air tickets.

Popular destinations on the official Google Flights website are well structured and users have the opportunity to choose destinations based on their interests, such as:
Leisure, wild nature, Food, Winter views sports, culture, Honeymoon, Islands, Beaches, Shopping, Adventure, Nature and Ecotourism.

Just click on the “Beaches” or “Winter Sports” button and you will see a selection of destinations indicating the minimum cost of air travel and price dynamics by month.

How to buy cheap air tickets on Google Flights

To quickly search for plane tickets on the official Google Flights website, you need to fill out the search form, where you must indicate the city of departure and destination, departure and return dates, the number of air passengers and class of service.

To buy the most suitable tickets, it is advisable to fill out the filter and set the required parameters in it, such as:

Airline,
- alliance,
- number of connections,
- point of departure,
- destination,
- departure time,
- flight duration,
- difficult route.

After setting up the filter, a search will automatically occur and on the monitor screen you will see the best flights, airline names and air ticket prices. Information about the availability of a USB connector and Wi-Fi on board is also provided.

Then you go to the partner’s website and book tickets using one of the methods convenient for you, for example, using a VISA or MasterCard payment card.

The Google Flights flight search only works with trusted partners such as airlines and ticket agencies. Partners provide Google Flights with up-to-date information on airline ticket availability and prices.

How to use air travel maps?

Markers with numbers on the Google map of aircraft flights indicate the number of flights aircraft, by clicking you can zoom in and see all the current flights in the area in question, which are displayed with aircraft icons.

If you hover the cursor over the airplane icon, the flight number will be displayed; by clicking on the airplane, you will open a window where flight information is located, which includes the airplane flight, photographs and technical data of the aircraft.

There are options in the top right corner interactive map air travel around the world. Click on the Filter tab - the number of aircraft in flight and airlines will be displayed.

In the Map tab, the user can select the option to display the world map. The standard default option is physical map world, but it can be changed to a satellite image map, a road map or a black and white version. Double clicking on an aircraft will display the route of the selected aircraft as a red line.

Using air travel search engines, you can find tickets for flights at different ticket offices according to specified criteria and by various prices, starting from the minimum.

How to save on air travel?

Early purchase of a ticket six months or a year in advance will cost much less than purchasing a ticket a month or week before departure.

If you want to visit one of the popular tourist resorts and are ready to fly out at any time, look for last-minute air tickets on travel exchanges or travel agencies. Last minute tours can be purchased closer to the departure date.

Don't wait too long to buy cheap air tickets, look for promotions on different airlines because sales don't last long.

If you are traveling without luggage and traditional airline services and on-board meals are not of particular importance to you, buy low-cost airlines. Cheap air tickets allow you to make profitable flights, especially during sales and promotions.

To do this, use online air travel search engines. They allow you to view different days to select round-trip flights based on which you can make your preference. weekdays Instead of holidays or weekends, choose connecting flights or other airports for departure. All this will help you save money.

Don’t rush to buy the first ticket you see, study the offers of other ticket offices or book a ticket directly from the airline’s website - in most cases, this can significantly reduce the price of the flight. Have a pleasant and inexpensive flight!