According to what was reported by Shift, the cause of the closure of booking flights (finding cheap flights o Google Voli) is attributable to a decreasing number of users adopting Google's booking tool for i flights. Travelers would prefer to book i flights with online travel agencies or directly with airline companies.
Meanwhile, Google itself announced the news with this note:
Book on Google for i flights will no longer be available as of September 30, 2022 in most countries or regions outside of United States. Bookings made before this date will not be affected. For questions regarding your current booking with Book on Google, you can still contact the booking partner in the booking confirmation and Google.
The fear that Google would become the largest agency in the world has therefore been averted. Perhaps because, as he himself underlines Shift, some experts saw Book on Google as the company slowly inching towards becoming an online travel agency but that never seemed to be the intent. Google makes too much money from travel advertising to want to compete directly with its biggest partners. Furthermore, Google has no interest in managing changes and deletions of the flights or to provide customer service to stranded travelers.
Google launched Book on Google in 2015 as a way to make bookings easier for airline companies and online travel agencies in an era when many of their mobile websites were not particularly sophisticated.
But partners' mobile capabilities have improved in the meantime, and Google said it has seen a declining share of bookings flights coming from the Book on Google function.
Many metasearch sites over the years have tried this type of easy booking for airline companies partners and hotels, but with a few exceptions, such as HomeToGo in Germany, this type of functionality has been in decline for years.
Posted in Digital Travel
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