“Wait. How Much Baggage Can I Take on This Flight (For Free)?” Google Has the Answer

Google Flights has introduced a new baggage allowance feature – one that will enable passengers to filter their flight searches by tickets that offer certain luggage amounts. The enhancement, says the search engine, will help travelers to compare prices. It’s not available for international flights.

Google Flights has introduced a new baggage allowance feature, reports Thrifty Traveler. This tool enables passengers to filter their flight searches by tickets that offer specific amounts of luggage.

Describing this feature, Google states here that, “The bags filter allows you to show flight prices that include the cost of checked bags or carry-on bags. This can help you better compare prices, and avoid any surprise fees at the airport.”

“Turning on the bags filter shouldn’t remove any flights from the results—it should just update the prices. A special case is if the only seats left on a certain flight don’t include overhead bin access. In some cases, it may actually be cheaper to check your bag than it would be to pay the fee to carry it on,” it advises.

Thrifty Traveler reports that this latest feature was added to Google’s flight booking service only last week. While this further refinement is certainly a handy one, the outlet also offers some troubleshooting advice for those for whom the new feature isn’t quite appearing. For would-be travelers unable to view the filter, it advises “using your web browser in incognito mode.”

Further explaining the changes with respect to luggage that have been made to this flight search tool, the outlet adds that, “…users will now see a small icon of a bag with a slash through it for flights that don’t allow carry-on bags … The addition of the no carry-on icon should make it easier for users to pick a fare that’s right for their baggage needs.”

Despite this improvement in search filtering, Thrifty Traveler reveals that there is just one catch to this new feature: it’s not available to those looking for international flights.

“That might change, but the spread of basic economy fares for even international travel – and the different ways that airlines allow travelers to add-on a checked bag – likely makes it difficult for Google to track,” it states.

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