Google Flights, Google’s airfare search tool, just got two upgrades, still rolling out over the coming week or so, that will appeal to many users.
The first is a filter that allows users to exclude basic economy fares from searches. By doing that, users can see only fares that include the usual perks and rules for regular economy and not wonder whether that much lower fare is really lower when extra fees and services are added in.
The other is an AI-based search called Flight Deals, that allows searchers to specify general conditions of where they’d like to fly and when, and then puts together options. An example from The Points Guy website: “week-long trip this winter to a city with great food, nonstop.”
Combining the new features with the Points Path extension to Chrome and other browsers, Google Flights becomes a more robust competitor for other search engines. Points Path adds award flight prices to the regular search, making it easier to decide how to pay.
