MileWise uses our QPX™ pricing and shopping technology on milewise.com to give users a faster and more comprehensive flight shopping experience. Now, Android and Nexus 7 users have access to the same great speed and broad range of search options. In addition to these benefits, QPX also enables other innovative features for MileWise Users: Combo Fares let users combine two one-way tickets with different carriers and payment types, for big potential savings Price Alerts let users instantly know if the lower-tier mileage seat or a great cash fare has become available Search Filters give users a full set of filters, making it easier to find exactly what they're looking for Users also have access to several innovative MileWise features that allow them to:

• Track 500+ programs (including airlines, hotels, credit cards and many others) 
• Explore places to go, using individual rewards or cash 
• Get expiration alerts to make sure they never lose hard-earned miles and points again 
• Receive activity notifications when status level or balance changes 

MileWise lets users see real-time flight prices in cash, airline miles, and hotel and credit-card points -- on one screen. They track reward program balances, status and expirations, combining that data with travel and redemption preferences, to recommend the best way to pay.

Congrats to MileWise on their successful launch. MileWise for Android is available for download in the Google Play Store at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.milewise.app.

To learn more about ITA by Google, visit www.itasoftware.com.

Posted by Asif Khan, Sales and Business Development Manager

(Cross-posted on the Google Inside Search blog)

Google aims to help people turn their intents into actions, lightning fast. For travelers, this means we’re helping to take the complexity out of planning a trip by making it fast and easy for users to find the information they need to plan their next journey. Whether you’re looking for information about flights, hotels, activities or destinations, we have tools to help you -- and they are easily accessible for people on the go. Some of our favorite new functionality is outlined below.

More information, better presentation 
This year, we’ve made some changes to the user interface of Flight Search, and added features that offer more information about amenities and fees; we did this to help users feel well-informed, and to help them quickly choose the best itinerary.

For instance, you can now quickly compare multiple destinations and multiple days simultaneously, using live prices, with our recently introduced experimental feature called Flight Explorer. Try it at www.google.com/flights/explorer.

    Flight Explorer experiment search results page 

You can also use a number of new features to tailor your flight shopping:

• More easily calculate the total cost of your trip by taking a look at the baggage fees displayed next to each flight option 
• Choose a flight offering in-air connectivity by viewing a new indicator noting flights that offer Wi-Fi 
• Consider a little more luxury in the sky by comparing the cost of flying business or first class instead of coach 
• Easily plan complex itineraries -- such as those including multiple stops, or trips that involve a flight into one city and a return trip from another -- without confusion, using our new, user-friendly interface 

Multi-city trip, Wi-Fi availability indicator, upgrade cost and checked baggage fees 

Going global 
In March, we made it possible for users to find flights to more than 500 destinations outside the US. Soon after, we enabled this capability for any international destination airport, for flights originating from the US or Canada. Globetrotters can try these features at www.google.com/flights, or just type your departure city and destination in the search box.

Results for international destination flight 

And late this year, we rolled out localized versions of Hotel Finder in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, UK and Ireland. Now, people in those areas can search for and view hotel options in their own language and currency.

Helping people make informed hotel choices 
 In 2012, we made it even easier to find and book the right hotel for you using Hotel Finder. We also added more content including Zagat reviews and amenities. Hotel Finder now shows the price and availability for a choice of room types.

Pricing information, reviews, hotel details on Hotel Finder 

Varying room types on Hotel Finder 

You can try these features, and others, at www.google.com/hotels.

Empowering road warriors, delivering better destination data 
In September, we made it easier for you to find the information needed to plan a trip, whether you’re searching via desktop, smartphone or tablet.

Soon after, updates to Google Now offered a number of ways for you to stay informed while on the go:

• Automatic flight status notifications 
• Updates on weather at your destination 
• Showcase of events happening nearby 
• Website suggestions to help you explore as you research things to do
• Electronic boarding pass cards for ease of travel

Google now travel cards

Finally, you can easily tap into the collective intelligence of the web to uncover a list of information relevant to your destination, using the Knowledge Graph carousel -- and hopefully, find inspiration.

Knowledge Graph carousel list of activities in Rome

Stay tuned for more. We think you’ll love what we have coming your way in 2013.

Posted by Jeremy Wertheimer, Vice President, Travel

(Cross-posted on the Android Official blog)

Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen! For Santa’s holiday travel this season, Google Now is just the prescription.

As you head off this holiday season, the latest update to Google Now makes it even more useful for traveling. Before you even leave your house, Google Now will tell you what the weather will be like at your destination (just in time to make sure you remember to pack those mittens). At the airport, your boarding pass is automatically pulled up, helping you breeze through to the gate (launching shortly for United Airlines, with more to come). And once you've arrived at your destination, Google Now can help you uncover some great activities, by showing you events happening around you, suggesting websites for you to explore as you research things to do, or allowing you to learn more about specific pieces while you’re at a museum (using Google Goggles).



All of this builds on top of some of the other cards designed for travel, like the currency conversion, translation, and flight status cards -- hopefully taking a little bit of the stress out of holiday travel so you can focus on family and fun.

We're also making Voice Search even more powerful: you can find out the name of the song that’s playing (“What’s this song?”), quickly find product info (“Scan this barcode”) and post updates to Google+ simply by using just your voice.

These goodies are waiting for you in the updated Google Search app, available on Google Play for devices running Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, or higher.

Posted by Baris Gultekin, Product Management Director

(Cross-posted on the Google Inside Search blog)

If you’re thinking about attending the 179th Oktoberfest, there’s still time. It runs September 22 -October 7 in Munich, Germany. Just in case you’re planning a trip, we’ve assembled some tips for how you can use Google tools like Flight Search, Hotel Finder, Maps and Transit to help you plan an amazing trip -- whether you’re using your desktop, laptop or on your Android device.

If you want to figure out the best beer tents to visit, this Google Map will be a great place to turn during the event (will be live 09/22/12). When the pin over the tent is green, the tent still has seating and is open. When the pin is red, the tent is closed because of overfilling.

My favorite tent is the Hippodrom, a smaller tent frequented by a younger crowd -- and recently discovered by celebrities. It offers beer -- of course -- but also has a sekt (sparkling wine) bar that is pretty stylish. You should plan on arriving early if you want to visit.

You can also see live pics from Oktoberfest by clicking on various webcams on the map. This capability is very useful in providing information to help you choose the tents you’re most interested in visiting.

You might also want to plan ahead and consider the crowds and traffic. With Google Maps for Android, you can take a look at live traffic to see if you want to drive -- or choose to just walk, bike or take transit.

If you want to see more of Germany, you can use Google Transit to reach other cities such as Hamburg or Frankfurt. This navigation tool includes information about Deutsche Bahn (DB) trains and recommends the best transit options, taking into account various factors such as duration and number of Umstiege (transfers/stops). The options are then shown on the map, along with time, train type and duration of the trip. This is especially handy because it’s possible to click through from the transit options page, to purchase your tickets on bahn.de without needing to reenter the dates!

And if you’re a non-Bavarian who doesn’t speak German, don’t worry. You can use Google Translate or the official Oktoberfest dictionary to communicate with the locals.


So now that your interest is piqued, you’ll probably want to plan a trip right away. You can do so by going to www.google.com and searching for [flights to Munich]. Your departure city will be automatically recognized; mine was New York City. As you change your dates, prices will instantly update.
             

I prefer nonstop flights, so I clicked on “Nonstop” to get a list of flight times available at the $1,073 USD price and then evaluated various attributes of the flights -- including the cost of checked bags for this ticket. Once I picked the flights that worked for me, I clicked the red “Book” button to make my booking via the airline’s website.
                

Finally, you can use Hotel Finder to find hotels near Oktoberfest in Munich. You can do this by going to www.google.com/hotelfinder and entering [Oktoberfest Munich, Germany], along with the dates you plan to be in town. You can use the reviews, images, ratings and pricing information to create a shortlist. Once I selected the hotel I was interested in, I used the red booking button which took me to www.booking.com to complete my reservation.
                

We hope you found these tips helpful. Whether you end up hitting the Wiesn tents this October, or visiting Germany at some point in the future, we hope to help you plan your trip and connect with travel suppliers with ease.

Posted by Noam Ben Haim, Senior Product Manager, Travel

(Cross-posted on the Google Inside Search blog)

Planning trips is fun and exciting, and ideas for where to go on your next adventure can strike you when you're in the most unexpected location. Last week I met a friend for coffee, and he told me about his recent trip to Maui. His story and photos inspired me and I immediately made a note to myself to check flights to Hawaii at home.

Since we launched Flight Search back in September, we’ve been hard at work improving the features, increasing coverage and making it easy to find flight results directly from google.com on your desktop. Starting today, we're also making it easier to find flights departing from the US on your mobile device. 

For example, when you search for [flights from Chicago to Daytona Beach] you’ll see a table that shows available flights, including duration and prices. You can adjust dates on the page, or click any flight to further research and book your trip.



The Flight Search feature on mobile browsers offers all the benefits of Flight search on desktop:

• Find flights quickly with results that load instantly and a list that’s easy to scan 
• Discover places to go on a map - see ticket prices for various destinations by surfing the map. You can filter by price, airline, or flight duration. 
• Find the best time to go - Click the calendar icon to see what dates will get you low prices.

          

The feature is available on Android and iOS devices. To learn more about the Flight Search feature, see our tips at http://www.google.com/insidesearch/flights.html.

Posted by Gus Prevas, Software Engineer

Many expert flyers use our powerful Matrix and OnTheFly search tools to help find the perfect flight. In Matrix, you can use our advanced routing language, calendar view, and multi-city search to construct the right search to meet your needs. OnTheFly gives you a streamlined mobile interface to help you narrow down your options quickly.

Today we added a new discussion forum to help users get even more out of Matrix and OnTheFly! The discussion forum provides a venue for all users to get help from a large audience, including Googlers with both an extensive knowledge of Matrix technology and the airline industry, as well as external Matrix and OnTheFly mavens. It’s a space where power users can share tips with one another and learn how other people are using our products.



Interacting with our users in the forum will help us get to know you and your priorities even better. The forum will also supplement our recently revamped help content for Matrix and OnTheFly as a knowledge repository of tips and tricks for getting the most out of our products.

We hope you’ll drop by the new forum and leave us a note!

Posted by Jacqueline Dozier, Consumer Operations

The Star Alliance FareFinder app can now be used on Android, BlackBerry and iPhone. The free flight search app, powered by ITA Software by Google, lets travelers search, find and shop for the best airfares for domestic and international trips across all 27 Star Alliance member airlines. It can be used by frequent flyer members and non frequent flyer members. FareFinder enables you to quickly find the best flight and offers an option to book your preferred flight directly from your mobile device.



Find out more about FareFinder and how to download or access the app on the Star Alliance website.

Posted by David Peller, General Manager, EMEA/India/Asia-Pacific

We just released the latest version of our airfare shopping mobile app for Android. One of the new features in OnTheFly™ 1.2 is the flexible date search that allows you to browse 35 days of potential departure dates on a calendar combined with an interactive price graph.



You can also save and access search history now, including particular itineraries of interest. We’ll even check price changes for those itineraries so you can know the best time to plan that dream trip.

Designed to demonstrate the comprehensive search abilities offered with our QPX™ airfare shopping engine, OnTheFly makes it fast and fun for you to compare options across airlines, dates, and alternate cities/airports.

If you haven’t already tried OnTheFly, you can download it for free from the Android Market or App Store. OnTheFly for use with BlackBerry (OS 4.6+) can be accessed at http://bbmatrix.itasoftware.com.

We’re excited about the response to OnTheFly so far, both from our first time and loyal users! Keep sending us your feedback and suggestions.

Posted by Stefan Frank, Product Manager