The Google Price Guarantee, which launched a pilot program Monday, shows travelers when Google Flights predicts a flight won’t get any cheaper before takeoff. You’ll notice Price Guarantee flights by a badge (it looks like a colorful shield) that appears next to the price.
It’s a helpful feature for peace of mind, and it works for you after booking, too; if Google gets the prediction wrong, and your flight price does drop, they’ll pay the difference. Prices are tracked from the time you book until your departure.
Like many things that may seem too good to be true, the process of getting paid is more technical than it sounds.
The price must drop more than $5 after you booked, and you must book the flight through the “Book on Google” function within Google Flights. So instead of using Google Flights to find a deal, then clicking through to an airline’s website to finish the booking, you need to complete the entire transaction within Google Flights.
It doesn’t cost anything to participate in the program, but you’ll need to be logged into a Google account to book the flight, and your flight must be departing from the United States. You must also have your country and region set to the U.S. with USD selected as your currency. When you book your flight, you must have a U.S. billing address and phone number.
Google will pay you the price difference (via Google Pay) within approximately 48 hours. The company will give you up to $500 per calendar year, and customers are eligible for payments on up to three open price guarantee bookings at a time.
Every flight with a badge has a Book on Google option and will be eligible for the price guarantee. In rare cases, airlines update prices faster than they upload them on Google Flights. If this happens while you’re shopping, the price guarantee option may no longer be available when you go to book.
But you’re locked into the price guarantee once you book the ticket. Google Flights will keep monitoring the price and send you an email if the price drops and you’re owed any money.
While Google is calling this a pilot program, spokesperson Craig Ewer said there’s no specific end date. Instead, “we want to carefully assess this initial launch and take it from there,” he said in an email.
Airlines have to partner with Google to participate in the Book on Google program — and to appear on Google Flights in the first place, which is why you don’t see every airline in Google Flights searches (like Southwest Airlines, for example).
“Book on Google is an option we give to airlines, where they authorize Google to collect the traveler’s flight information [and] payment details, which we then pass along to the airline to complete the booking and manage the reservation,” Ewer said.
This could be a temporary stipulation. In September, Google announced it will be phasing out Book on Google for U.S. users sometime after March 31. The company is exploring options for extending the price guarantee program beyond the pilot to cover as many flights it can, “and that means doing so without the Book on Google requirement,” Ewer said.
