Last week, Google Flight Explorer was spotted in the wild. It’s a tool that lets you browse flights by trip length, number of stops, airline, duration, outbound times and return times. Google was reported to have called it an “experimental feature”.
Today, Google has formally announced the service, along with a handful of other new Flight Search features.
“Google aims to help people turn their intents into actions, lightning fast,” says Jeremy Wertheimer, Google’s Vice President of Travel. “For travelers, this means we’re helping to take the complexity out of planning a trip by making it fast and easy for users to find the information they need to plan their next journey. Whether you’re looking for information about flights, hotels, activities or destinations, we have tools to help you — and they are easily accessible for people on the go.”
“This year, we’ve made some changes to the user interface of Flight Search, and added features that offer more information about amenities and fees; we did this to help users feel well-informed, and to help them quickly choose the best itinerary,” he adds.
One of the features is Flight Explorer.
Google is also now showing baggage fees displayed next to flight options, indicating which flights have Wi-Fi, and offering business class/first class/coach comparisons. There’s also a new interface:
Additionally, Google’s Hotel Finder tool is now showing the price and availability for choice of room types.