With several caveats, the search giant is making a bet that it can predict that prices will not rise on tickets for specific flights.
Google is taking a bold step in the world of online travel planning. The tech giant is piloting a price guarantee for airline bookings. Now, certain flights departing U.S. airports will come with a money-back promise. If a Google-guaranteed ticket price gets cheaper before the time of the flight , Google says it will step in to compensate for the difference.
The feature was announced in a Monday blog post along with a couple of other new changes meant to enhance Google’s travel tools. The new price endorsement, though, is by far the most interesting of the shifts. The move is seemingly intended to remove some of the consumer doubt from the equation of when/if/how to buy plane tickets, and to attract more users to Google’s flight search platform. And in some ways, it seems like a genius plan. Plane tickets are infamous for their rapidly fluctuating prices that may even shift based on your individual browser activity. Any way to reassure consumers of their choice seems like a solid way to boost sales.
However, with a price guarantee, the tech giant is entering into murky waters where things have gone wrong for companies before. I n not-too-distant history, MoviePass reached corporate notoriety for its mismanagement of a fixed-price ticketing promise that ultimately tanked the company and led to a federal investigation and lawsuit. Google clearly isn’t taking on that level of risk, but could still theoretically find itself in the red.
Yet Google sees nothing but sunshine ahead for its flight search.
