Google Flights — Explore Plugin

Google Flights — Explore Plugin

Auth: None (public) URL: https://www.google.com/flights Configuration: Set home airport and target destinations in vault/explore/config.md

Data Available

• Flight prices for specific origin-destination pairs on specific dates
• Price calendar (lowest fares per day over a month — identifying the cheapest travel windows)
• Airline options with number of stops, total duration, and price per option
• Nearby airport alternatives and their pricing comparison
• Round-trip vs. one-way fare breakdown
• Baggage fee information (where available)
• Price tracking alerts (via Google Flights UI — manual setup by user)
• Fare history context (Google sometimes shows "price is lower than usual")

Configuration

Add to vault/explore/config.md:

explore_home_airport: MSP
explore_preferred_airlines: [United, Delta]

Notes

• Requires Playwright with headless=False for full calendar rendering (calendar view uses JavaScript lazy-loading that doesn't work in headless mode)
• Price calendar URL: google.com/flights#flt={ORIGIN}.{DEST}.{YYYY-MM-DD};r;ls=1w;li=1
• Search results URL: google.com/flights?q={ORIGIN}+to+{DEST}+{DATE}
• Google Flights does not have an official scraping API — use rendered page content
• For international trips: always check the price calendar view first to identify the cheapest travel window (often 2-3 days flexibility saves $200-500 on international fares)
• Best booking window for international fares: 3-6 months before departure typically yields the best prices on most routes from US airports

Used By

• op-trip-planning-review — check current fare options for a planned trip's dates; compare against budget estimate in trip record
• flow-build-trip-summary — surface current round-trip fare if flights are unbooked, to populate the budget estimate field

Vault Output

vault/explore/00_current/ — flight research results written to the trip record as a fare comparison note