Before you book your next flight, try this viral cheap flights hack

A TikTok user who focuses on travel shares that she’s found a hidden way to find cheap flights. Even if you don’t know how you’ll survive a flight with a little one in tow, it may be a way to save a little money on your next family vacation (or kid-free trip!).

“Did I just unlock a cheat code or did everyone know about this?” user @aroundtheatlas states in a post. Her “cheat code” went viral on TikTok, having now been viewed at least 4.5 million times, and the New York Post featured it on their social media.

So, does the “hack” actually work?

She says to go into Google and type in “Google Flights.” Approve permissions to use the service. Then type in your location and put “anywhere” in the destination. Leave the dates blank as well, though she says you can fill them in. 

Then, poof: A map pops up with cheap flights at various places around the globe. You can zoom in and out on the map. Once you click on a price and location, it takes you to a listing of flights with the cheapest listed on top. You can browse flights by airline.

@aroundtheatlas how to get super cheap flights!! #travel #cheaptravel #fyp #travelhacks ♬ original sound – Around The Atlas🌍✈️

I tried it, and yes, this is a known Google feature (even though many people may not have known about it). It does pull up a variety of flights similar to other flight-finding websites. (Even though she typed in anywhere for fun, you can also search based on specific locations.) Using the “anywhere” feature, I found a $181 round-trip flight from New York to San Francisco at the end of November, and a $48 roundtrip flight from New York to Miami in early December. If you’re looking to go international, there’s a deal on flights from New York to Paris for a week in early December for $381 round trip. If you’re able to build a little flexibility into your next vacation, there are mega deals to be had. 

While the joy of discovery (and major deals!) is part of the magic of this hack, you can (and may want to) filter your flights by airline, time and number of stops—though that will of course impact the prices you’ll find. 

According to people who commented on the original TikTok, some people were amazed, while others weren’t too impressed. 

“I travel a lot and always use google flights.. didn’t know this “to anywhere” though..thanks,” wrote one user.

“Are you new here?” another user commented to the original poster.

Whether or not you knew about it before you saw any of the posts on social (or this one), Google Flights may be a good place to look next time you’re trying to compare flight prices. Or, as @aroundtheatlas implies, if you want to see how cheap it is to go “anywhere.”