It’s rare you hear somebody recommend Wikipedia as a formal source of information—well, publicly, at least—and especially not as a resource for travel planning. However, the web’s free encyclopedia offers detailed information on every major airport (and most minor ones) in the world. That info includes all the global destinations that can be reached directly from those airports and the airlines that can take you there. If you’re trying to map out optimal ways to use your frequent flier miles, you’ll find those details especially pertinent.
The ITA Matrix software used by Google Flights shows everywhere in the world you can travel from a particular airport—and for how much. With a click of a button (and a few tricks), you can populate an interactive destination map that shows you all your global options to help you decide where to go next. You can also monitor fares for specific flights and get alerts when prices go up or down.
Together, Wikipedia and Google Flights are powerful travel-planning tools if used properly. Here’s how I take advantage of both.
How Wikipedia can help you find (better) flight options
Every airport listed on Wikipedia includes a subheading, “Airlines and Destinations,” where you’ll discover which airlines serve the airport in question and which destinations can be reached directly from that airport. This may sound like elementary information, but it’s a great resource for those wanting to know options for nonstop flights and possibilities for mileage redemptions.
Let’s clarify with some real-life examples. Four of us want to visit my cousin in Charleston for Memorial Day weekend 2026—ideally using miles. Thankfully, Charleston has its own airport a short ride from the city center, Charleston International Airport (CHS). We live in south Florida, and the family doesn’t like connecting flights.
Once I’m on the Charleston International Airport page on Wikipedia, I click on “Airlines and Destinations” from the Contents menu (on the left-hand side), which reveals a table with the airlines flying in and out of Charleston, plus all the cities with direct flights. To quickly find if there are any direct flights to/from Miami, I do a Control-F Search for “Miami,” and I find that American Airlines/American Eagle fly nonstop between Miami International Airport (MIA) and Charleston. I do the same for “Fort Lauderdale” and see JetBlue is an option if we want to fly from Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL), while Breeze Airways will begin flights in July 2026 (too late for this trip). I now know there are several options for direct flights.
Next, I go to Google Flights and check prices for cash tickets between MIA or FLL and CHS from May 22 to May 25, choosing “nonstop” options only (from the selection of filters). The cheapest flight is on American Airlines for $327 in Basic Economy round trip per person or $417 in Main Cabin. Meanwhile, JetBlue comes in at $397 round-trip for the Basic Blue fare and $477 for the Blue fare. It sounds pricey for a short flight to/from Charleston, so I’m hoping this could be a good time to cash out some miles.
Therein arrives the moment to price the tickets in points versus miles. I go to the websites of AA and JetBlue and find them to boast solid value using miles through their respective loyalty programs, with AA the better choice: 20,00 AAdvantage miles per person on AA in Main (compared to $417 in dollars), 32,200 TrueBlue points on JetBlue for Blue (compared to $477 in dollars), each with $11.20 in taxes. Knowing that AA has many airline and loyalty-program partners, I go a step further and explore mileage rates on AA through the program of Oneworld partner Alaska Airlines. While there are no award seats using Alaska’s Atmos Rewards for the Miami to Charleston leg on AA, there are seats for 4,500 points plus $19 in taxes and fees for the Charleston to Miami flight on May 25, 2026.
Since the airline industry moved away from a round-trip pricing model years back, it’s now time to see if it’s possible to do the trip as two separate one-ways. Sure enough, the one-way on AA is 11,500 AAdvantage Miles on May 22, 2026. Therefore, I end up booking the tickets one way with AA, the other with Alaska and pay just 16,000 miles per ticket (11,500 for MIA to CHS; 4,500 for CHS to MIA) for a total of 64,000 points (16,000 times four, since four of us are traveling) plus a total of $98.40 in taxes and fees for a party of four, instead of $1,668. Not bad!
Use Wikipedia to identify new and seasonal flight routes
Wikipedia can also provide insights into which routes are seasonal and which are currently suspended. Even better, within the same “Airlines and Destinations” section, you can discover new routes as soon as they are announced and when they are set to commence. On the flip side, you can see which flight routes will end and when.
For example, a quick search in mid-April 2026 of Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) reveals that in December 2026 Australian flag carrier Qantas will begin direct service between Sydney, Australia, and Las Vegas. Spirit Airlines will resume seasonal flights to Indianapolis in April 2026. This summer, Southwest will be introducing several routes between Las Vegas and Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, and San Jose del Cabo in Mexico; Hilo, Hawai‘i; and Anchorage, Alaska, and will also start flying from the hub to San José, Costa Rica, in October 2026. Meanwhile, Southwest’s direct flight from Vegas to Chicago–O’Hare will end in June.
While this massive Southwest expansion at LAS is surely exciting for Vegas residents, it’s even more so for residents with Southwest’s Companion Pass, who will now be able to bring a plus one for just the taxes on a half-dozen new international routes.
Additionally, since many legacy airlines tend to release mileage award seats on new or seasonal routes far in advance, it’s worth checking for deals now for Qantas’s new long-haul route out of Vegas. Qantas is a Oneworld partner so upon checking with American Airlines, I find the direct route for 80,000 AAdvantage miles, plus $130.23, for a two-week trip, January 24, 2027, to February 7, 2027. The cash price for the same ticket in the equivalent Economy Saver fare came out to $2,538. Using miles for this ticket yields excellent value.
Find affordable airfares using Google Flights’ Explore feature
ITA Matrix software powers Google Flights, where a simplified, consumer-friendly version of the software makes it easy for travelers to find the best fares. With Google Flights, you can type in your origin and destination (you can search multiple nearby airports at once) and find the cheapest one-way, round-trip, and multi-city fares typically 330 days into the future (the window when airlines typically open up bookings for future flights). An interactive calendar feature allows you to see the lowest fares by date.
However, beyond searching specific flight routes, you can assess broader trip options and price them out with Google Flights’ interactive map using the Explore feature. On the Google Flights home page go the Explore tab above, then simply type your departure airport, but don’t fill in the arrival airport. Put in your desired dates (or no dates) and hit search. You will see where you can go for a time range (e.g., “1-week trip in the next six months”) or in a specific month or even specific dates and for how much. You can then filter by nonstop, airline, duration, price and more. Move your mouse around the interactive map and discover destinations and prices across the globe.
Let’s say you are based in New York City and know you want to end summer on a high note in Europe but don’t know exactly where yet (and flight price is a factor you are considering). We entered August 29 to September 7, 2026 (the last week of pre-Labor Day summer with a return on Labor Day) from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to “Europe,” slid the scale to be $750 and under for round trip, and toggled the switch for nonstop flights only. We found options like Reykjavík as low as $478, Copenhagen for $656, and Barcelona from $619.
Or let’s say you’re open to going to Europe anytime in the next six months. You work from home, you’ll go anywhere if the price is right, and you have total flexibility on dates. Do the same search as above from JFK to Europe, but instead of typing in specific dates in the field below, click on it and either hit flexible dates or simply type “1-week trip in the next six months.” I prefer to still choose only nonstop options, but to each their own.
This yields an interactive Google Flights map with multiple options. Google will reveal the cheapest options based on your search. What caught my eye when I tested this in April 2026 was a round-trip ticket to Athens for only $549 in the coming months. I click on the price icon on the Google Map, and indeed it’s nonstop flights from Thursday, October 8, 2026, to Friday, October 16, 2026, on Norse Atlantic Airways.
I have been dying to revisit Athens, the flight is so cheap, and honestly, I’d rather avoid Europe’s summer crowds. I quickly decided it was fate that I found this flight. Sold for $549!
Use Google Flights to track prices
Another powerful tool embedded within Google Flights is price tracking. This is especially useful if you have your eye on specific flight routes over specific days. You’ll need to have a Google account to maximize this feature, be signed into your Google account, and give Google permission to email you price changes (which just requires the click of a button).
Say I don’t want to do the Charleston trip for Memorial Day weekend and instead want to head from south Florida to Los Angeles. I enter the information in the appropriate fields and add the dates: May 22 to 25, 2026. Once Google Flights lists my options, I choose morning flights on JetBlue, both going and returning. After I’ve selected my ideal flights, I have an option in the top right corner to “Track Prices.” I simply hit the button and am now subscribed to receive email alerts when prices change. Google Flights also offers the option for me to monitor prices of similar flights, which I do.
From that moment forward, Google Flights will track those flight prices until the flight date or when I request to stop tracking, whichever comes first. You can track prices for as many flights as you’d like, and they will be organized by date under “Tracked flight prices,” accessible through the contents bar in the top left-hand corner of the Google Flights home page. Easy-to-digest graphs will show you how prices have gone up or down over time and whether current prices are high or low comparatively.
Sometimes you’ll want to use Google Flights to monitor fares until they possibly reach your target price. Depending on the airline and its policies, you may also want to use Google Flights after you’ve purchased flights to get fare adjustments. For example, if I end up purchasing JetBlue’s Blue fare, I am entitled to receive fare adjustments back as travel credits, when purchasing directly through the JetBlue website reached via Google Flights. (Note: This does not apply to Basic Blue fares, JetBlue’s version of basic economy.)
For JetBlue nonrefundable fares, cancellations or eligible changes may be made prior to scheduled departure for a per-person change/cancel fee plus any applicable difference in airfare. Any remaining balance will be issued as a JetBlue travel credit and may be applied toward future travel. Credit expiration dates are available by accessing your JetBlue travel credit account.
After getting an alert from Google that the fare dropped on a ticket already purchased, I head to Jetblue.com. All I have to do for my price refund is go to “Manage my Reservation” on JetBlue.com, choose change flights, but then pick the exact same ones at the lower fare, and done! Naturally, JetBlue isn’t going to send me emails of price drops for fares already purchased, but Google Flights will. Then it’s up to me to score the difference.
While the “Track Prices” feature is great, it’s not without fault. There have been many times when I have not received email alerts of price drops (though subscribed), so I’d recommend still checking in on those flight price graphs from time to time. If this sounds tedious, it definitely can be. However, I’ve personally saved and reclaimed thousands thanks to “Track Prices” and would say it’s well worth using.
The bottom line
By understanding and using the power of Google Flights and Wikipedia, you can figure out how to get to where you need or want to go cost-effectively and with fewer or (ideally) no layovers, and can even map out potential future dream trips around the world. It may take a bit of practice, but soon you’ll find these are two of the most powerful travel-planning tools available.
This article was originally published in 2022; it was most recently updated on April 23, 2026, with current information.
