Google Wants You to Never Overpay for a Flight Again

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Making sure you pay a reasonable fare for flights often feels like a fool's errand. If you're lucky, you'll snag a mistake fare or flash sale. More often, you'll deliberate ad nauseam. Do you book? Do you wait? Can anyone actually beat airlines at their own game?

Alphabet Inc.'s Google aims to change that. On April 3, the search giant announced a new price-guarantee feature that promises to monitor prices daily and pay customers the difference if their fare drops at any point from booking to departure.

For now, it applies only to select US flights on Alaska, Spirit and Hawaiian airlines. If the round-trip flight itinerary you're booking qualifies, you'll spot a light blue-colored price-guarantee badge that shows up above the fare option, whether for basic economy or main cabin. You must then book the itinerary directly through Google, using the “Book on Google” link in search results. This means you enter your information and payment details on a Google-hosted platform that passes it to the airline, which then confirms and manages the reservation.

“What we're wanting to do is to take [our] price insights to the next level,” says Jade Kessler, product manager at Google Flights. “We have hopes to offer this to as many users as possible and expand it beyond just Book on Google.” Although there's no official expansion timeline, Google says its long-term plan is to roll out the guarantee feature across as many US and international flights via as many carriers as it can.

As for the rebates, customers will receive email notifications and see the payments appear automatically in their Google Pay accounts. From there, they will be free to transfer that money to personal bank accounts. Those without a Google Pay account will receive