Google Flights will refund the difference if prices drop unexpectedly
But only on certain flights for a limited time.
Just after shutting down its Trips travel-planning app, Google has announced a raft of travel-related features for other products, including a flight price guarantee. For a limited time, when it tells you prices won't drop on a trip you book through Google Flights, it'll refund the difference if it's wrong and the cost does get lower before you take off.
Google will keep monitoring prices after you book and it'll let you know if the ticket price dips, then issue the refund automatically. This is valid for certain trips originating in the US booked between August 13th and September 2nd, though Google didn't reveal which specific flights are eligible.
From today, you may see whether Google considers the price for your entire itinerary to be typical, high or low, as it already does for flights. For certain flights, Google will also display how the price changed over several months and it'll notify you when it thinks the price might rise or if it's unlikely to get any lower.
If you receive flight confirmations in Gmail, you'll see the trip in Google's travel section. Google will offer suggestions on how to build out your itinerary, including hotels, restaurants and activities, starting this week. Your flights will also be added to a timeline, and you can manually add trips if Google doesn't automatically include them.
Starting in the next few weeks, when you search via Google's travel section for hotels for your destination and dates, it'll let you see a description of neighborhoods, average room prices and more details to help you figure out where to stay. Google will personalize those results a bit more by including hotels you previously stayed at or searched for, and those close to points of interest you've looked up before.
Meanwhile, you'll be able to access your flight and hotel reservations from Google Maps, including when you're offline, via the Reservations tab in Your Places. Google is also rolling out Maps' neat AR walking directions to more phones, so the app should be even more useful for helping you explore a new place.
