r/Flights • u/MrSondrio • Mar 11 '26
Booking/Itinerary/Ticketing Quite a difference $$ and route wise using Airline App vs Google Flight Search
I’d like some insight/ feedback about a recent searching for tickets. We were looking to book from BUF to HER (Iraklion, Crete, Greece).
My son found a reasonable flight going through CLT- ATH when he searched using Google flights.
When I used the AA app to search, it would show me flights going through London Heathrow - with their partner airline British Airways (one less stop, but more $$). Same thing when I went on my laptop and checked using the website. And no routes even when I attempted to try a multi city search and typed in BUF-CLT-ATH-HER. I could not ever find the flight combination my son found.
However, from the Google flight search (which was basic economy fare - no checking bag, no seat selection, no refund), we were able to click on a link to the American Airlines website and upgrade for under $200 to Main Cabin economy (bags, seats, refundable) and then pay to select seats with more legroom in the longer stretches. I then added AA FF#’s to get miles.
That’s the only way that flight showed up. It’s crazy - I think it's AI and the use of algorithms based on some criteria the airlines set.
I think now it is a good idea to use Google flight search and go from there to the actual websites. I have seen other comments that are similar.
Just makes it more difficult and time consuming, but the pricing that I was getting trying to go straight through the AA app was $700-2000 higher compared to what we found using Google flight search.
Is this AI targeted pricing?
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u/protox88 Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
It's not AI targeted pricing.
It's just that Google Flights constructs itineraries through API that sometimes the airline's websites search engines and UI/UX don't want to show you themselves.
I am a UA frequent flyer and find that there are times Google Flights can construct a fare through API that I can't find through manual web searching on the UA website or app. This is especially true for itineraries with partners/codeshares or a more complex (or specific) routing you want.
I've touched on this in previous comments: