You’re Doing It Wrong: 5 Common Mistakes when Booking Flights Online

5 ways Google Flights will screw you over & how to stop overpaying for flights.

If you have ever wondered if buying a fight ticket on Google Flights more expensive and is it OK to book through Google Flights in 2024... then stay tuned! These are the top 5 cons of using Google Flights and a common mistake you need to avoid when booking your flight tickets. While Google Flights offers a wide range of flight options, not all airlines are listed, and the best flight deals may not always appear. You may encounter unrealistic flight options, outdated and inaccurate pricing, and limited customer support. It's also critical to book directly with the airline or a reputable travel agency to avoid any booking process or travel issues.

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00:00 Know before using Google Flights
00:14 Major airline missing
01:05 Cheap flights missing
01:56 Terrible flights
02:52 Ollie say's HI!
03:05 Can't book flight
03:48 ZERO customer support
04:13 WORST Google Flights mistake

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// ABOUT

Hey there, I'm Megan and I've spent 5+ years living and working from over 50 countries around the world. I'm on a mission to prove that anyone (even you!) can do it too.

Portable Professional is a youtube channel full of actionable tips and guides to travel, live and work from anywhere in the world. Serving seasoned digital nomads and first-time travelers alike, it's the ultimate resource to hack the travel lifestyle.

[tammypearson]

My husband hates waiting around in airports, in lines to board the plane, etc. He is also very conservative with $ so he finds cheaper flights with tight connections appealing. Flying to Europe last week, we had to run from terminal to terminal and I told him we weren't doing that again. Weather played a big part of the problem, but I told him less than an hour between flights is out of the question. You always have great information and topics which are so important and relevant! Thank you 😊

[letterify]

So the key is to check different booking sites to get more prices one service may miss. Your tip to book directly with the airline is good and sometimes I'll use expedia or tripadvisor or kayak to book bundles to save money. The key is to take advantage of the time immediately after booking to try to locate lower prices because in that short interim of 24 hours you may be able to cancel the booking without penalty.

[awaytogether]

🙌Great tips, Megan! Can not agree more about booking direct.

[barrywmurphy]

I love your content! It would be so fantastic if you would do a video on what your current process/protocol is, step-by-step, as to exactly how you go about booking a flight. It would be so great! Thanks again!

[utkarshpathak]

Your video's are very informative and camera quality is superb. Thank you so much for making these videos and keep doing it, you are doing great. And by the way ollie's appearance was the "icing on the cake, " put a smile on my face.

[boomertuber]

Is there anything like couch surfing available anymore? I see lots of flight deals but no super low priced U.S. hotel deals except for hostels. Not a fan of hostel because of covid but I'm willing to pay a small fee for lodging. THANK YOU!

[chesterwillger]

I Love the ending. Soooo worth at little extra you might pay to book right through the airline. I’ve had to cancel a flight 8 hours before my flight. Delta gave me a full return in flight credits that I had over a year to use. I had a booked 3rd party flight and the airline bumped me off. Instead of non stop from Chicago they bumped me to a one stop fight out of Milwaukee. Nothing I could do to change it.

[radium]

Super heros don't always wear capes. You are a travel tip hero 😉

[soonerjane]

I found a mistake fare a couple of years ago. I booked 1st class to Lima Peru for $25 LESS than economy - 15 minutes later it was gone.

[HR-wdcw]

I've always found going directly to the airlines webpage to be the best for booking flights. I'll usually start with Google flights just to see unless I know ahead of time which airline I will be flying (or if someone else is paying, then I just use my airline of choice such as United or SW and just start there). But if it's a place I've not been to yet, I'll use Google to figure quickly the various prices from different airlines, but don't book through Google at all and just use it for getting flight pricing.

For me, a lot of whether I can take advantage of some of these deals, comes down to timing. Unless I'm traveling for work, I generally have a specific window (although can be flexible +/- one or two days in some cases) but some of the best deals are usually say two weeks where you fly out on one day (say a Tuesday) and back maybe two weeks later on a Tuesday or a Thursday (but that's what you'd have to do to get the really cheap round trip flight and for many, it probably won't work out). But if you can arrange your vacation to from say Tuesday to Tuesday instead of Sunday to Saturday or something like that, then you can score some great deals as it seems in many cases, flying in/out on Tuesdays appears to still have some advantages.

In terms of layovers, I've tried to not book flights that have a layover that's less than 90 minutes or two hours. In fact if I have to do a layover somewhere or connection, I generally look for ones that are 2-3 hours apart, as this leaves plenty of room for if the flights are late (as I have had to run through airports only to get on the plane 5 minutes before the door closes). A recent trip from Chicago to Atlanta, Ga I had to do this as the flight going out of Chicago was 45 minutes delayed and the layover was only 1 hour, but luckily in that case, the gate I had to get to was only 2 gates over and we did arrive 10 minutes before boarding ended on the second flight, so I lucked out, but it was stressful because they wouldn't tell me until we landed, which gate it was (thankfully, again, it was only 2 gates over so it took me only 2 minutes to get to the other plane).

[drbcrb]

Really appreciate your work to make these videos. You provide valuable information.

[truckn]

That happened on my 1st flight from Canada to Bangkok in 2017. I was walking into the airport in Toronto from Winnipeg and they were calling my name over the PA systems to get my donkey to the next gate to connect with South China airlines flight for the next leg. That experienced taught me to pay attention to the times in-between connecting flights. Travel Safely and Be well.

[daphenebaines]

I am so glad I slowed down and checked the connection. I found a fantastic price for a trip I plan to take with my 3 year old on Google flights. Right before I added my credit card, I went back for a final check and realized the connection was only 24mins in a huge airport. I doubt I could make that connection alone let alone with my 3 year old and his stuff. Lol
Great tips. Thank you.

[sabineedelmann]

I appreciate non-stop flights and will be flying from Calgary to Zurich with a charter flight/Edelweiss/ Swiss airline. They just fly during the Summer month. Booked through Expedia.

[karidufur]

Thank you! Always great & helpful!

[ricardo]

Thank you Megan. I didn’t know about Scott’s Cheap Flights. I’m going to check it out. 😊 Also, people should be wary of outbound flights from cities with multiple airports as sometimes connecting flights leave from a different airport such as LHR, LGW, LUT.

[chuckv]

Always avoid those impossible short layovers not worth the travel stress

[deandecoursey]

I’m in Chiangmai for another week and am planning my next trip here for 2-3 months next December (hate cold weather). After 5 years of neglect, and renters that didn’t care what they did to my house and property, the 2 and a half months spent working on it is coming to an end and I can use the house for living/vacationing and a stopping off point for travels to nearby countries and beach resorts in Thailand. By the way, the air quality for these 3 weeks has been surprisingly good, with only 2 days of what I would consider poor quality air.

[evadeanu]

Great video again. I was surprised that Turkish airline is not listed on good flight.

[well-blazeredman]

Air-travel: still an exercise in risk-management.
Good video.