This Google Flights Hack from TikTok Finds Cheap Airline Tickets to ... - PEOPLE

One TikTok user seemingly cracked the code for finding cheap flights.

Last week, travel influencer @AroundTheAtlas posted a video, which has garnered over 4 million views, that featured a search hack for air travel.

"Did I just unlock a cheat code or did everyone know about this?" she wrote over the start of the post. In the clip, she recorded her screen to let followers in on her discovery.

She navigated to Google Flights and typed her departure city, London, into the box that read "Where from?" In the "Where to?" box, instead of adding her desired destination, she typed "Anywhere." And instead of adding desired trip dates, she left them blank.

From there, she was able to look at a map, to choose where that "anywhere" might be. She hovered over Barcelona, commenting that roundtrip flight is priced at £26 (or about $31.74 USD). Meanwhile, she noted, a roundtrip flight from London to New York City is cheaper than it would normally be, priced at £336 (or about $410.51 USD).

While prices only apply to certain dates, the creator said it could be helpful with booking travel if the exact timing isn't important.

"Does anyone else know about this? Because I feel like the world is gatekeeping how insane this is," she added.

Getty Images

Users in the comments were excited by the finding.

"THANK YOU me and my mum want to go on a holiday somewhere but flights are just too expensive this is soo helpful," one person wrote, while another added, "I travel a lot and always use Google Flights… didn't know this 'to anywhere' though… thanks."

Some commenters noted that the discounts generally apply to "cheaper" airlines, flights with long layovers or departures at undesirable hours. 

Regardless, TikTok loves a good travel hack. Last month, a video from a Southern California's Ontario International Airport employee went viral, which reminded travelers to remove old airline stickers from their luggage. Evidently, sometimes suitcases get lost because the wrong sticker scans and the bag is sent to the wrong airline.

"Let's say you flew American [Airlines], and then a month later you flew Southwest," the airline worker explained in the video. 

Getty Images

"Well, there's a little sticker that goes on for American [Airlines] that tells the computer that it should go to there… so if your month-old American sticker is on there, there's a chance it scans it instead of this one. It just depends how it's clocked and where the stuff is. It might end up over there and not get on the plane," he added.