Google Uses AI to Help You Find Cheap Flights
Google Flights is getting an AI-powered tool that will help you find the best deals for your upcoming trips. All you have to do is open a chat and tell it what you need. The service is called Flight Deals and it works just like the Google search bar. Just tell it when, where, and how you want to travel, and it will do the rest.
The new AI tool is designed for those who don’t like fiddling with Google Flights’s various search tools, which currently require you to select specific airports or dates even if you just want to browse. I’ve used Google Flights to find a lot of great flight deals over the years, but I have to admit that it’s not for everyone. Currently, searching Google Flights is like driving a stick shift car when automatics are readily available. Sure, Google Flights gives you a lot more control , but Google has designed Flight Deals to be accessible to everyone. Once they’re widely available, it could become an easier way to find a cheap flight you might otherwise miss, or even brainstorm travel ideas in general.
Flight Deals will also show you location-based travel deals below the search bar, even if you haven’t searched for anything yet. When it comes to your own search queries, Google gives you free rein to be creative. You could type in “cheap economy flight from New York to Los Angeles in a month,” but you could also try searching for “weeklong city break this winter with great food, nonstop” or “10-day ski trip to a world-class resort with fresh powder.”
Flight Deals is currently in beta testing in the US, Canada, and India. Neither my editor nor I have access to it yet, but Google says the rollout should be complete in about a week. In the US and Canada, Google says it has also added the ability to exclude Basic Economy fares, which could be useful for those with a lot of luggage, since these fares sometimes don’t even include a carry-on.