Try these 3 Google Flights hacks to get the best deals on summer airfare

Summer is in full swing, a time when millions of Americans will embark on their annual vacations, either domestically or abroad. Data from Skyscanner shows that roughly 62% of those who plan to take a summer vacation have already booked their trips. Around 38% have not yet bought their tickets. If you’re among those who still need to book flights for a July or August vacation, you may worry that buying airfare at this late stage might cost an arm and a leg. But according to Google Flights’ product lead, James Byers, the platform has three lesser-known features that can actually help you secure summer flight deals. Use the Date Grid to see how flexibility could save you money Most people use Google Flights like any other flight aggregator: they enter the departure and arrival cities and their travel dates to see what options Google Flights spits out. While this is an efficient way to search for flights when your dates are fixed, you may miss out on big savings if you have more flexibility in your travel plans. Of course, even people with flexible travel plans don’t want to spend hours entering different dates into Google Flights looking for the best deals. That’s why Byers recommends that anyone with flexible travel plans use the platform’s date grid and price graph to quickly see how changing a departure or arrival date could save them money. “The date grid shows how prices change if you make slight adjustments to your departure or return dates (for example, departing on Thursday instead of Friday),” Byers explains. “The price graph shows how airfares change for a trip of whatever duration you’re considering, when you look across several months.” You can access the date grid and price graph from any Google Flights results page. Below the “View Price History” bar on the results page, you’ll see the Date grid and Price graph buttons. Click either to quickly skim through a chart or graph to find dates on which you can get lower flights to the destinations you wan