Overview
It's that time of year when your phone buzzes incessantly with calls from your parents asking when you'll be back for the holidays. If you're anything like everyone, you've put off booking these flights because, while you theoretically like the idea of seeing your family, the thought of sleeping on the floor, drunk and full to bursting with Christmas ham, sandwiched between two distant cousins is enough to put you off dropping money on Christmas-time flights just yet.
Google know this and they sympathise…sort of. Along with a whole swag of products (including their new Google Pixel phone and their own VR headset, the Daydream) and the recently launched Google Trips, they've also announced that their flight search engine is getting a cool new feature. Google Flights is the tech company's online airfare search tool (not unlike Skyscanner et al.). Up until now it's been effective at finding the most convenient and cheapest flights for the dates you want to travel, but its latest update will also tell you when the price of said flights is predicted to go up or down. Using their magical algorithm, Google will be able to predict when flight prices will increase — so they'll let you know if you need to book that baby before it doubles in price, or if you can afford to sit on it for a few days. It'll also make recommendations on the cheapest dates and times to book and even give you tips on which airports and routes will be cheaper for you.
And if you're still not ready to fully commit to the idea of heading home, you can track flights and the progression of prices and get email updates when prices fluctuate or expire. They're also integrating a decent hotel search feature into the whole shebang if you're going somewhere more exciting than your family home for Christmas.
The new Google Flights feature will roll out over the next few weeks. You can use the tool at google.com/flights.
Image: Ross Parmly.