Originally Posted by
stuart_f
Agree on the useless white space - it may look good on a 'mood board' but it's impractical for the user. Shrinking the page in my browser using 80% zoom helps quite a bit.
Links to book flights via Google Travel seem new. eg
Book on Google with KLM
These links have been around for a little while now. Presumably, now that Google is phasing out the QPX express API in order to prioritize booking through Google Flights, they will transition to a system that will make all results shown have at least one configuration bookable with Google Flights directly, except perhaps for some airlines which have price display or other issues (Southwest comes to mind). This is an unfortunate but predictable trend. One worries if Google might next take action designed to counter the effectiveness of the ITA Matrix script or Bookwithmatrix.com, which would be even more problematic.
Regarding functionality, I did notice one annoying change, which is that if there is a result that can only be booked by calling the airline, it no longer displays the flight numbers that you should quote to the booking agent in order to find the correct configuration and price. This feature is particularly useful when codeshare flights are involved, because often differences in operating or marketing carrier can change the cost of the fare drastically.