Ask HN：谷歌航班的商业模式是什么？近期有变化吗？
5 分•作者: lastofthemojito•大约 15 小时前
我想知道是否有人比我更了解谷歌推出谷歌航班（Google Flights）的原因。据我所知，这款软件没有付费版本，谷歌也不会从其推荐的任何销售中抽取佣金。然而，运行谷歌航班似乎需要谷歌花费相当多的资金，而且它没有任何直接的收入来源。
我也想知道最近是否有什么变化——我认为谷歌航班已经存在十多年了，在这段时间里，它似乎一直符合我的兴趣——简化了寻找最便宜机票的过程，以到达我想去的地方。
不幸的是，最近它在几个方面似乎有所退化。
1. 它不能可靠地提供由两家不同航空公司的两张单程机票组成的往返行程。
2. 它不能可靠地显示新的目的地。我最近看到一家航空公司增加了一条航线，这条航线可以让我在两个航段内到达一个目的地，而不是三个航段。我兴奋地搜索了这样的行程，但在谷歌航班上找不到（但在该航空公司的网站上可以找到，该航空公司的航班通常也会出现在谷歌航班上）。
3. 我住在一个有多个机场服务的地区。与我的第一个问题类似，我觉得谷歌航班不再能可靠地向我显示从一个机场出发、在另一个机场返回的往返行程（例如，从希思罗机场出发，在盖特威克机场返回伦敦）。一旦我选择了一个出发机场，它……
是我遇到了什么bug或小故障吗？还是谷歌因为某些原因（太贵了？）正在积极地削弱谷歌航班？谷歌是在试图为那些不太懂行的用户简化流程吗？还是谷歌航班在谷歌内部已经成为一种被遗弃的软件，正在缺乏持续支持的情况下运行？
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I'm wondering if anyone has any more info than I do regarding why Google offers Google Flights? As far as I know there's no paid version of the software and Google doesn't take a cut of any sales they refer. It seems like it must cost Google a fair amount of money to run and doesn't have any direct revenue source.<p>I also wonder if anything has shifted recently - I think Google Flights has been around for over a decade, and for most of that time it felt aligned with my interests - simplifying the process of finding the cheapest flights to get me where I want to go.<p>Unfortunately, it has recently seemed degraded in several ways.<p>1) It doesn't reliably offer round-trips made of 2 one-way tickets from 2 different airlines.<p>2) It doesn't reliably pick up new destinations. I recently saw an airline added a route that would allow me to reach a desired destination in 2 segments rather than 3. I excitedly searched for such itineraries and couldn't find them on Google Flights (but I could on the website for the airline, whose flights are generally on Google Flights).<p>3) I live in an area served by multiple airports. Similar to my first issue, I feel like Google Flights no longer reliably shows me round-trip itineraries that depart from one airport and arrive an another (e.g. depart from Heathrow, arrive back in London at Gatwick). Once I pick a departure airport it<p>Is it just me hitting some bugs or hiccups? Or is Google actively degrading Google Flights for some reason (too expensive?). Is Google trying to simplify things for naive users? Or is Google Flights abandonware within Google that is running without much ongoing support?