Google Flights is one of the most popular online flight booking platforms that facilitates the search and purchase of airline tickets through third-party service providers.
It has an interactive calendar and price graph that helps you find the best airfare rates.
Google Flights is well ahead of most online travel agencies (OTAs), allowing you to easily book your flight with the airline directly. It features an extensive list of months’ worth of flights so you won’t miss out on deals on the cheapest flights.
Additionally, Google Flights allows you to search for cheap flights from multiple airports simultaneously, which comes in handy, especially with international travel. The platform has unparalleled features and function sets that effectively filter results to give you what you want.
While Google Flights leverages the dominant search engine Google and excellent products to gain consumer traction, it still faces competition from other travel agencies, including Alternative Airlines, Kayak, Skyscanner, Flightics, HERE WeGo, and Wikitravel.
Of the alternatives mentioned above and many others not mentioned, my pick is Alternative Airlines. They are experts in selling flights with over 40 payment options, including fly now pay later.
Why look for Google Flights alternatives?
If you searched for Google Flights alternatives, chances are high that you were unhappy with the platform’s limited booking options. While Google Flights allows you to compare flights, it redirects you to the airline’s website or a third-party booking site.
Since it is not a booking site, Google Flights lacks customer support, making it hard to get help if you have issues booking a flight.
But what made most travelers look for Google Flights alternatives was when the platform announced that it would disable the book option for travelers outside the US.
In light of this, it’s a good idea to explore options.
Let’s get started.
Best Google Flights Alternatives
1. Alternative Airlines
Alternative Airlines is an excellent global flight search and booking website featuring over 600 airlines. The platform has a flight option for you regardless of your destination.
Alternative Airlines stands out against Google Flights for its over 40 options to pay for your flight, including e-wallet, fly now pay later, and cryptocurrency options. The platform also accepts over 160 currencies, allowing you to purchase flights from any country.
What I love the most about the Alternative Airlines website is its ease of use. Its unique and super-friendly customer service team is always on standby to help you with any booking query, whether big or small.
Unlike Google Flights which redirects you to a third-party booking site or the airline’s website, Alternative Airlines allows you to pay for your flight on-site through various payment options.
You may have reservations about Alternative Airlines due to its cancellation policy, as the platform charges for all cancellations.
But overall, it’s safe to book with Alternative Airlines, as the travel agency is fully accredited, certified by IATA, and ATOL protected. You’ll agree it is a reliable travel agency from the reviews published on Alternative Airlines’ website.
2. KAYAK
KAYAK is a flight search engine that is owned by Booking Holdings. It offers the best deals on flights, hotels, and car rentals. KAYAK’s web and mobile app are available in 20 languages and 30 countries.
The platform considers itself the world’s leading travel search engine. It’s not a booking site but rather an aggregator that scans through hundreds of third-party travel websites to find you the best rates.
KAYAK is a reliable site, in fact, more reliable than most third-party booking sites, as it redirects you to individual travel service providers for booking.
Steven Hafner and Paul M founded KAYAK in 2004 after realizing a need for a comparison travel website. Almost a decade later, KAYAK was acquired by Booking Holdings and has since grown into a household name.
For years, KAYAK focused on offering the lowest travel price. Recently, it launched an app to elevate the user experience of mobile users. In addition to getting the cheapest flights, KAYAK’s trip planner simplifies your planning process.
KAYAK’s Chatdeal connection might have rubbed customers the wrong way. While the two work together, it’s essential to be sure of who you are dealing with before booking your flight, as KAYAK does not take responsibility for whether a ticket you are booking exists.
While KAYAK lacks an in-house customer service team, it still offers more comprehensive results than most travel agencies.
Additionally, it suggests multiple destinations to consider. KAYAK does not lock you in with a single vendor so that you can compare various booking fees.
3. Skyscanner
Skyscanner helps you find millions of cheap flights with a straightforward search. As the name suggests, it scans the internet to bring you data from airlines, hotels, and other travel agents.
It is a legitimate company and a reliable tool for finding the best travel deals worldwide. Skyscanner was founded in 2003. Since then, Skyscanner has experienced exponential growth to over 800 employees, operating worldwide in over 30 languages.
The platform operates under relevant laws and regulations. Like Google Flights, it is a comparison website that directs you to the airline or a travel provider for booking. Skyscanner works with reputable travel service providers to bring you reliable deals.
Unlike Google Flights, Skyscanner also allows you to pay for a flight through its platform. It has various payment options, including fly now pay later, to help you spread the cost of your travel to avoid financial strain.
Skyscanner accepts major credit and debit cards. You can also pay for your flight in your preferred currency.
To effectively use the Skyscanner site, use the “anytime” feature, especially if you still have time but do not select your departure date. Instead, choose the whole month and then narrow it down to the cheapest month.
If you are yet to pick a destination, select the “anywhere” feature, then narrow it down to the cheapest month again. With Skyscanner, you can set a price alert to be notified when prices drop from your home airport or any airport you choose.
Occasionally, you may experience a price mismatch on the platform, but It is an issue experienced by most comparison sites, whereby the price displayed on the site differs from the actual flight booking site.
Overall, Skyscanner is a reliable travel agency that is reasonably fast and comprehensive. The platform gives you results from hundreds of airlines and travel agents in seconds while giving you options on which site to book your flight through.
4. Flightics
Flightics is a modern flight search engine like Google Flights. The Czech Republic-based platform was founded in 2012. It started as a search engine for backpackers searching for cheaper trips around Europe.
The company expanded its offerings in just one year to include classic return flights and weekend tickets. Unlike Google Flights, which allows you to search for flights to anywhere, Flightics primarily focuses on European flights.
However, chances are high that the platform will add the cheapest flights to Asia, America, and worldwide in the near future. Flightics is an excellent tool for enthusiastic travelers looking to explore outstanding places for as little money as possible.
Some of Flightics’ unique offerings include Euroweekends, which lets you find cheap weekend flights from Friday to Sunday or even Monday. Multi-city flights enable you to arrange an unforgettable trip around Europe at great prices.
Flightics also offers tickets for destinations with stopovers. What makes it stand out against Google Flights is its unique flight combination. With Flightics, you can easily combine flights with airlines that normally do not cooperate.
Flightics’ unique flight combinations help you save more on expensive direct flights. Flightics, like any other travel agent, had a rough time in 2020 following the Covid 19 pandemic. However, it managed to hold onto its reputation by providing refunds or vouchers to all customers.
Flightics’ support is available 24/7 to answer any and all queries. Its prices include the online check-in with onboard tickets sent to your email.
The platform boasts a happy customer database of over 500,000. But what excites me about this travel agent is that the price you see on the website is final. It allows payments through CSOB getaway using any card.
5. FlyGRN
FlyGRN is another platform that lets you compare and book flights from airlines or merchants. The platform was founded in 2018 by Jelle Bekirovic, but the idea of converting it into a greener search engine came in 2017.
Jelle loves traveling and nature. When he realized how much of a negative impact traveling had on the environment, he had to think of a solution that would satisfy travelers and take care of the environment.
FlyGRN considers itself a green search engine as it is on a mission to offset the CO2 emissions of every flight with every ticket you purchase. By offsetting carbon emissions on your flight, you also support solar cooking projects in Chad.
So if you search or book a flight through FlyGRN, part of your flight’s emissions are paid for. In some cases, they cover it 100%. You’ll also receive a CO2 certificate with a personalized number online.
The certificate also includes information on offsetting projects. FlyGRN often offers lower flight rates than Google Flights. Some customers complain of higher fees and feel CO2 offsetting is not free. Instead, it’s added to your flight fees.
Overall, FlyGRN is a worthy replacement for Google Flights, which compares flight rates from over six sites to give you the best rate.
There has been a lack of transparency in contemporary CO2 offsetting services. As a result, the Amsterdam-based travel agent, FlyGRN, took the matter into its hands to ensure that travelers get accurate information about the impact flights have on the environment.
6. Trip.com
Trip.com, formerly Gogobot, is a travel agent offering travel services such as ticketing, corporate travel management, reservations, and packaged tours. Since its rebrand in 2016, Trip.com has grown exponentially to become a worthy contender in the flight and ticketing space.
The company’s primary goal is to help you plan a perfect holiday. Whether you are planning a journey or business trip or are only interested in setting up a corporate account, Trip.com does its due diligence to bring you the cheapest flights, discount hotels, or train tickets globally.
Trip.com’s website and app are easy to use, with 24-hour customer support to ensure your seamless booking process. It offers quality services in multiple languages, including English, Japanese, Mandarin, French, German, and Spanish.
Trip.com allows you to customize your trip through multiple search filter options and features such as a deal-finder calendar, flight fare alerts, and early-bird deals.
Unlike Google Flights, which will direct you to the airline or third-party agents, Trip.com allows you to pay for your flight on the site. It uses a secure payment system with easy payment options, including UnionPay, debit, and credit cards.
The platform makes your flight search much more straightforward. It breaks down search options into featured hotel destinations, popular flights, trending searches, popular airlines, airports, and flights to popular cities.
Trip.com’s overseas customer support may result in language or cultural issues, but overall, Trip.com is a legit platform worth considering. The best part about booking your flight through Trip.com is that you’ll get cheaper prices than when booking directly.
7. Skiplagged
Another promising flight search engine is Skiplagged. The platform claims to offer ridiculous travel deals you cannot find anywhere else.
Skiplagged has mastered a mechanism of finding cheap flights through loopholes in traditional airline ticketing.
Instead of the apparent way of searching for tickets from point A to B, Skiplagged gives you options for hidden-city tickets. You can travel from point A to C with a layover at city B. Skiplagged goes beyond to show you flights that airlines don’t want you to see.
However, Skiplagged highly discourages checking in luggage when using hidden city tickets, as they will be checked to your final city destination on your ticket.
Skiplagged might not be a good choice if you are looking for cheap business and first-class tickets, but the platform helps you find the best travel information hassle-free.
Overall, Skiplagged is a safe platform. It can easily pass as a budget travel site, especially if you book conventional flights. While you might not get trip protection from Skiplagged on some flights, you can be sure the platform will come through regarding hidden-city ticketing.
8. Agoda
Agoda is another excellent travel agent that you can try in place of Google Flights. It is a one-stop shop for flights, accommodation bookings, airport transfers, and global destinations.
As an online ticketing agency, Agoda provides its users with a straightforward interface to reserve their travel needs quickly. Agoda was founded in 2005 in Singapore. The platform has since grown to accommodate over 6,000 employees worldwide.
The travel platform brings travelers high-value and rewarding experiences through its website and app. It is considered one of the leading travel-tech companies, serving millions of registered users and supported by a diverse team in 31 markets.
Agoda was acquired by Booking Holdings in 2007. It shares a parent company with the most renowned travel services providers, such as Priceline, Booking.com, Rental Cars, Opentable.com, and KAYAK.
If you are wondering whether Agoda is legit, the answer is yes! Agoda offers a reliable and user-friendly booking platform offering great deals to destinations worldwide.
To make the best out of Agoda, ensure you are flexible with your dates, extend your stay if the rates are low, and wake up early to catch the lowest prices.
Like most travel sites, you must quickly grab deals on Agoda. Remember, everyone else will check the deals simultaneously, so the faster you do it, the better for you.
Agoda’s website and app are straightforward to navigate. The site also has coupons and discounts to save you money. While at it, you can pay for your flight using your credit card or PayPal.
9. Expedia
Expedia is further proof that cheap travel is possible. The platform offers deals on all types of travel, including flights, rental cars, and hotels. Expedia’s website and app have search features that give travel deal results from multiple companies.
You might be cautious when dealing with go-betweens or third-party travel service providers, which is good. But Expedia has been a legitimate and reliable travel company since 1996.
However, changing or canceling reservations might be hard, like with many OTAs, so you must be careful when booking. In most cases, issues arise when customers ignore the company’s changing, refund, and cancellation policies.
Expedia is one of the pioneer companies to offer online travel booking. It is owned by the Expedia Group, which also owns and operates other travel companies, such as Hotels.com, Vrbo, Trivago, Hotwire, Travelocity, and Trip Advisor.
10. Momondo
Momondo is a travel fare aggregator and a metasearch engine that helps you find the cheapest flights. The Denmark-based travel agent is also part of the Booking Holdings company, as KAYAK manages it.
Momondo is a legitimate website, so you shouldn’t worry too much when buying tickets from them. Since its launch in 2006, it has received numerous accolades as a top-flight search engine, making it a favorite site for many travelers.
It is your one-stop shop for travel reservations, including car rentals, flights, and hotels. But travelers will agree that Momondo’s specialty is cheap flights. Its colorful website layout is a fresh break from the traditional design.
The platform maximizes its display screen by ensuring you access all the information in a single view. You can filter your search results by airline, airport, or airline. You will also find advanced search options in the left sidebar and flight insight on selected locations.
However, while booking with Momondo you need to be fast. The truth is that you’ll see a good flight deal on the platform, only to click on it and find it unavailable.
But overall, Momondo is a solid flight search engine that allows you to compare bookings on up to 30 travel sites instantly.
11. Priceline
Last on the list is Priceline. Priceline promises travelers deals for hotels, rental cars, and flights. The platform gives you results from various companies at once.
Priceline was launched in 1998 to fill otherwise empty airline seats. Since then, the company has grown to host millions of website visitors. Priceline is a third-party provider, so you must be careful, as anything can happen.
Make sure that you double-check bookings to mitigate any potential hiccups. Once you receive a confirmation code from Priceline, head to its website to manage your booking and ensure it is successful.
Ensure you read and understand its cancellation policy, as most discounts that Priceline advertises, such as Express Deals, are non-refundable.
Overall, Priceline is worth considering as it helps you save more, especially with its Priceline VIP program.
Final Words
There you have it! Some of the best flight search engines worth trying.
The best part is that these sites are free, so you only pay once you get the cheap flight you are looking for.
That said, I also acknowledge major concerns by travelers about the legitimacy of some of these sites, especially those showing you flights that the airline doesn’t want you to see. For this reason, please double-check with your airline before purchasing a ticket from agents.
But if you are looking for a Google Flights alternative that has it all, I highly recommend Alternative Airlines. It covers a range of airlines and destinations, from major carriers to smaller regional airlines.
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