MW I asked AI, Google Flights and a travel agent to find me the cheapest flight. Here's who won.

By Genna Contino

Generative AI's lack of real-time data and human touch limits what it can offer travelers

When planning a weekend trip for this July, I made a common travel mistake: I waited too long to book my flight, and prices had already gone up.

It was mid-June, only about a month before I needed to fly to my hometown in the Charlotte, N.C., area for a weekend event, and I didn't have a flight yet. Normally when I visit family, I pay a little more than $100 round trip with bags; I can usually find a Spirit Airlines $(FLYY)$ round-trip flight for $20 to $50, and wind up paying $30 to $50 for checked or carry-on bags each way. But prices for round-trip tickets on the budget airline had already eclipsed $100, not including bags, which I had expected considering the last-minute query and heightened summer travel demand.

I decided to enlist a generative artificial-intelligence model like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's $(GOOGL)$ $(GOOG)$ Gemini to scour the internet for flight deals. This year, 15% of travelers are using generative AI to plan trips, compared with 10% in 2024, according to Deloitte's 2025 summer-travel survey.

See more: Travelers are waiting until the last minute to book trips. Here's when that works - and when it can backfire.

I started by asking Gemini to "act like a travel hacker," using whatever tips and tricks available to find the cheapest airfare from a New York City-area airport (preferably not Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, which is farther away from me) to Charlotte Douglas International Airport. I provided the dates and specified that I needed evening flights, so that I wouldn't have to take off work on Friday and Monday. I also asked the bot to tell me what it did to find the tickets, and how much money those tactics would save me.

My results were lackluster - and a bit frustrating.

Can AI find me a cheaper flight than Google?

Gemini recommended I book two one-way Spirit flights between LaGuardia Airport and Charlotte. It said it had found a one-way ticket from LaGuardia at 7:58 p.m. in the $50 to $70 price range, not including the cost of bags. It also recommended I book directly from the Spirit website, not from a third-party travel site.

But when I looked for this flight on the Spirit website, I couldn't find it. The cheapest flight I found was $92 with a stop in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., overnight - not what I wanted at all. Why would I pay more for a layover in a city farther south than my destination? I let Gemini know that this was the best option available on Spirit's site, and that I didn't intend to book it.

"You are absolutely right to call that out! An overnight stop in FLL for a NYC-CLT flight is definitely NOT what we're aiming for, especially given your direct request for a quick, cheap hop," the bot told me. "My apologies - sometimes the search engines prioritize a lower base fare even if it means an incredibly inconvenient itinerary. That's why the 'travel hacker' needs to be vigilant!"

Despite its apparent enthusiasm, my AI travel hacker was not coming across very vigilant. After a lot of back-and-forth with Gemini to find something cheaper - I even said I would fly out of Newark if it meant I could score a deal! - the lowest fares it could find me were Spirit and Frontier Airlines $(ULCC)$ flights for around $250 including bags. Asking ChatGPT identical questions yielded similar results.

OpenAI and Google did not immediately respond to a MarketWatch request for comment.

I still wasn't convinced this was the best deal available, so I decided to do what I normally do: Check Google Flights, find the cheapest round-trip route, then go to that airline's website to book directly. I found a Delta Air Lines $(DAL)$ round-trip flight starting in LaGuardia, carry-on bags included, for $178. Frustrated with Gemini at this point, I asked it why it wasn't able to find this flight when I had found it so easily.

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"You likely hit a very specific moment when Delta had released a small batch of these 'Main Basic' fares at that exceptionally low price for those dates. It could have been a new fare class released, or a very limited number of seats at that price point," the bot said. "Even though I'm pulling from current data, I might have queried just before or just after that specific fare bucket became available or sold out. My estimates are based on general trends and what's typically available."

The last point it made demonstrates the shortfalls of generative AI in travel booking that help travel agents and online travel services keep a competitive edge. Google Flights and many travel professionals have access to global distribution systems - which generative AI models don't possess - that offer real-time, granular access to nonpublic fares and inventory levels directly from airlines.

That access allows you to compare the most up-to-date airfare for different routes on Google Flights, and lets agents book complex itineraries with exclusive rates. Plus, travel agents can apply human judgment and intel from their own vacations and experiences that a chatbot would never be able to do.

"I have clients go to ChatGPT and ask, 'Hey, I want to go to this island. What's the best pricing?' However, that island that they're thinking of might not be the ideal destination for them," said Katie Lynn Reynolds, a travel agent at Travelmation. "Travel advisors, we still have that inside intel. I've been to over 100 resorts, so I can tell you, 'This is not the resort for you just because you're seeing it on ChatGPT and you're seeing the pretty pictures.'"

Travel agents use Google Flights, too

It turns out that using Google Flights to find my Delta flight is the same first step Reynolds often takes when finding flights herself - it's what she said she would do if she were booking my July trip for me.

"It's such a great search engine, and professionals like myself, we still use it," Reynolds said. "You do have to price check directly to the airline's website, but it is a great tool to see available flights and schedules."

Google Flights allows you to easily compare different flights for the route and dates you need. Users can set up price tracking for specific dates and receive emails when there are significant price changes. I learned after my booking experiment that it is possible to integrate Google Flights into Gemini as an extension, which can be helpful if you need to access real-time flight information but prefer to do it with a chatbot interface.

Reynolds doesn't recommend most of the hacks you might hear from travel influencers online. For example, some use a browser in incognito mode, so that booking websites can't use your search history to exploit perceived demand by offering inflated prices.

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After I made my initial request to Gemini, the large language model said incognito mode was part of the "travel-hacker playbook" it used. But when I asked if the bot itself was even able to use incognito mode, it clarified that it can't and said all of its searches are done through an internal API (application programming interface), which allows different software programs to exchange information. Later in our discussion, Gemini contradicted itself by telling me that using incognito mode to find savings doesn't really work, anyway.

Reynolds agreed. "Even if you're booking in incognito mode, it's still able to tell where you're booking from and there's still cookies being stored," she said.

Since the bot can't use a browser in the traditional sense, it also can't use a virtual private network, or VPN, to search for flights. Some travelers try to save money on flights by setting the VPN location to an airline's home-country market or a country with a weaker currency - so it can be worth it if you're traveling internationally and looking to save $50 or so.

Booking on a specific day could potentially yield savings. Travelers can save the most when they book on Sundays, while Mondays and Fridays are the most expensive days to purchase airfare, according to online travel platform Expedia's (EXPE) 2025 Air Hacks report.

AI is still useful for other aspects of travel planning

While free generative AI chatbots might not be at a level where they can seamlessly produce the best deals from a simple request, the technology is playing a big role in the evolution of the travel industry.

Expedia introduced an AI-powered trip-matching feature in May that allows Instagram users to direct message a travel-related reel to the Expedia account, which will then reply with personalized itineraries and booking options based on the video.

"It can process and integrate information from the text, the images, the audio and the videos," said Expedia Brands' resident travel expert Melanie Fish. "So when you watch and share an Instagram reel with Expedia, it can figure out where that is and send you the information you need to recreate all or part of that trip."

AI also powers many travel websites' customer-service chatbots to answer questions and help resolve issues for those planning vacations.

See more: Want the best deal on an Italian getaway this summer? Go to Albania instead.

Generative AI has made Reynolds's work as a travel agent easier in some ways, but she isn't worried that it's coming for her job. After my experiment, I'm not too worried either.

Reynolds said she uses AI to make client-facing emails more professional and to pull quick statistics on resorts or cruises - but she always has to double-check what the bot spits out, as it is not always accurate.

Travel agents can also show their kindness in very human ways that AI just can't replicate.

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June 24, 2025 08:00 ET (12:00 GMT)

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