On the go and need information fast? Google has some great travel-friendly tricks tucked away under its search sleeve. Here are five of the best.
1. Flight status
Enter the flight number for any flight in the world and Google will fling back a report on its current status.
Want a little more information, including the duration of a flight and an idea of its previous on-time record? Just below the flight status panel you'll usually see links for a more detailed report on that flight to websites such as Flightradar24 and FlightAware.
Click any of those these for a deeper dive into that flight.
2. Flight schedules
Tell Google where you want to fly from and to, and up pops a list of all your options.
3. Currency conversion
You can do a quick conversion between any two currencies on Google, which also brings forth an online currency calculator.
4. World time
Get the current time anywhere in the world...
... and make it easier to schedule international phone calls by entering a specific time and city to see the local equivalent (based on Google knowing your current location).
Need to find the local time in a city other than your own? Easy...
Google also understands time zones as well as specific cities, which is handy for dealing with the USA.
5. Get the weather
A quick check of the weather before you pack for your next trip? Easily done.
Want more detail? Try the optional five-day forecast at Weather.com (for example, here's a glimpse at the next five days in San Francisco).
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
30 Jun 2016
Total posts 51
Number two stopped working on my laptop a couple of months back, only the search links appear. Frustrating as I use it a lot. Schedules still appear on my phone and tablet, but google chrome on laptop is a no show. Anyone else have this issue?
VA
01 Mar 2013
Total posts 26
I have the same thing. Very annoying as it used to be such a quick and easy (if not always 100% reliable) way of checking schedules.
29 Nov 2016
Total posts 1
Not sure if this is causing your issue, but I have noticed that this (very handy) feature only works from the google.com.au domain. If you are using the US google.com domain you get the much less useful google flights info.
Failing that, try installing Firefox and using google.com.au, is working for me now. Good luck!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
02 Aug 2012
Total posts 73
This is really useful. Thanks :)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 Oct 2013
Total posts 111
great thanks
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
07 Feb 2015
Total posts 150
I reckon Google Translate is very useful in a country when you don't speak the language. Just type 'Translate' into google and a translate bar will appear giving you choices of language you want to translate to and from and just type what you want to translate and Voila!
25 Sep 2013
Total posts 1242
Re #2, if you know your IATA airport codes you can simply type those in (for example, SYD-AKL) and Google will recognise them for major airports.
QFF
06 Nov 2012
Total posts 46
It seems to work on MSIE but not on Chrome.
25 Sep 2013
Total posts 1242
Yes it does. I use Chrome as my exclusive internet browser.
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