It seems like Google is looking for a way to put AI into everything these days, and now its efforts have reached its airfare-booking service, Flights. On Thursday, Google announced that it’s testing a new AI-powered Flight Deals tool, which could come in handy if you’re planning a trip on a budget but aren’t quite sure where you want to go yet.
Instead of just entering your preferred airport and destination, Flight Deals takes a more open-ended approach. You can describe the kind of place you’d like to visit, and even get specific about how long you want to sit on a plane and what activities you’d like to do once you get there. Google will then use AI to come up with cheap flights that match your preferences. For example, you can search for “a weekend countryside getaway with trail rides and kayaking” or a “trip to Europe with great cheese and wine in May,” and see what pops up.
While using Flight Deals, I found that it surfaced a mix of obvious vacation spots and some lesser-known locations. When looking for “a tropical destination with snorkeling,” it showed me spots like Cozumel, Mexico; Nassau, Bahamas; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, which were predictable but viable suggestions. But a search for a “trip to Europe with hiking” showed suggestions for a couple of cities that I wouldn’t have thought of — Cluj-Napoca, Romania and Ljubljana, Slovenia — which is nice if you’re looking for something off the beaten path.
Still, some of the results I got weren’t useful at all. When searching for “a tropical weekend trip that’s less than 5 hours away” from the Orlando airport, it yielded results for Miami and Key West, which may not be ideal for someone looking to travel outside the state. I also managed to stump it by searching for “trips to Japan during cherry blossom season” — it said it found “no deals” for this search.
If you don’t specify when you’d like to visit, Google will default to showing you flights within the next six months. You can also play around with some of the filters, like how many stops you want, or which airline you’d prefer — but the nice thing about this AI-powered revamp is that you don’t have to.
Despite some hiccups, I could still see myself trying out Flight Deals if I’m looking for travel ideas that aren’t super out of my budget. I probably wouldn’t entrust AI with planning out my entire trip, but having it generate some destination ideas, which I can then do more research on, doesn’t hurt. Google Flight Deals is rolling out in beta to users in the US and Canada over the next week. You can find it on the standalone Flight Deals page, or in the top-left menu on Google Flights.