Google Flights Ends Booking Charges for Airlines That Paid
Skift Take
With potential pressure from U.S. regulatory authorities and perhaps displeasure from airlines, Google is making the biggest change to the way it monetizes flight search since it launched Google Flights in 2011. Perhaps free search engine optimization for flights isn't dead after all.
Google Flights is changing the way it makes money — and it could have significant implications for travelers, online travel agencies, and airlines.
For example, when the series of modifications get implemented by the middle of next month, consumers searching Google for "United flights" might be able to view a free link from United.com or Kayak.com that's placed higher on the page or screen than Google's own boxed module of flight search results. Today that never happens; Google pins its own flights' module above all organic results.
Although the breadth of the changes remain to be seen, Google's altered display algorithm could potentially be an important change for online travel flight sellers that have suffered as Google relegated their free results down the page, and virtually out of view.
According to Google, it will no longer charge airlines for booking links to their websites from within its price-comparison feature starting this month. (Some airlines were paying but most likely were not.)
And by mid-February:
Google Flights, which has favored airlines over online travel agency partners since it debuted in 2011, will eliminate the online travel agency ads that appeared without prices at the bottom of Google Flights on desktop. Google felt these ads weren't serving th
