Expedia’s New Real-time Deals Tool Analyzes 2 Million Flights Daily to Disclose One-off Fare Deals

There’s nothing quite like the thrill of scoring a $300 plane ticket that usually costs $400, or booking your trip just when fares drop after months of tracking. Finding the perfect flight deal requires time and patience, but with the new Flight Deals tool in the Expedia app, the process just got a whole lot easier. This tool analyzes more than two million flights daily, identifying fares that are at least 20 percent lower than the typical price.

For example, if flights between San Diego and Hawaii usually cost around $450, the Flight Deals tool will only highlight that route when the fare drops to $360 or less.

Here’s how it works: Every time you open it, Expedia Flight Deals analyzes delivers deals that meet a minimum value and quality bar. Those rates are then compared against historical flight price data and other price context factors, like seasonality and day of the week. The flights you see are only fares that are 20 percent cheaper than normal.

And if you’re thinking you’ll end up with a cheap flight with a 10 hour layover or three stops, they’ve thought of that too. Before they reveal a flight as a “deal,” they run it through a quality check that filters out fares that have more than one stop or layovers that are more than 8 hours.  

“What’s unique about Flight Deals is the transparency and insight we’re giving travelers into the flight prices they’re seeing,” said Josh Templin, vice president of product for Expedia Group in a statement shared with Travel + Leisure. “We’re using proprietary machine learning technology to analyze millions of flights daily and dozens of price-influencing factors, and we’re sharing that information with travelers so they can make better-informed travel decisions. The result is a tool that makes it easier to get inspired, plan a trip and feel good about the deal you booked.” 

The new money-saving tool is located in the Expedia app under the “Search” tab. You can enter your home airport and instantly see quality fares to destinations around the globe.

And of course, if you’re not ready to buy or don’t see the flight you want, you can create custom deal alerts for the destination and travel dates you have in mind. (There is no limit on the number of deal alerts you set.)

When you find the flight you want at the savings you dreamed of you can book the flight directly in the app. 

The Flight Deals feature is free for Expedia One Key members (which is a free membership that just requires an email) and there is no fee to create custom alerts or to see and book international flight deals.

The new tool is the latest of Expedia’s other free money-saving tools, including Price Tracking, which tracks flights and tells you when it’s the best time to book and alerts you with price changes.

To download the Expedia app, click here, and to access the Flight Deals tool, click “Search” within the app and then select “Find deals.”