- Skyscanner's Savvy Search and Google's Gemini are AI-powered tools that can help you plan your trip.
- Both tools can also find you cheap flights, but Gemini managed to find the lowest price.
- The Skyscanner tool is a good place to start if you don't have a destination in mind.
Get more news like this delivered to your inbox bySign up for our Travel Newsletter here.
When booking a flight, chances are you want to get the best deal. This is especially true now that flights from U.S. airports are more expensive than a few years ago.
There are already some tools to help you find Affordable flight ticketlike flight price trackers and lowest fare calendars, but what about these new AI tools? Travel search engines like Booking.com, Expedia, and Skyscanner have recently launched AI-powered features to help customers plan their vacations.
These AI Travel Planners – which act like chatbots – help travelers plan certain aspects of their trip, such as finding accommodations and destinations, or even creating an itinerary for them. But some of them can even help you find cheap flights.
Launched in May, Skyscanner's Savvy Search tool is powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT and “accesses a vast database of more than 18 million flight routes and 80 billion daily price searches to deliver the best travel recommendations,” Laura Lindsay, Skyscanner's global travel trends expert, told USA TODAY.
Learn more: The best travel insurance
Make your travels easier:We tested ChatGPT routes in 5 US tourist sites
According to a Google spokesperson, Google's artificial intelligence tool Gemini is a “creative and productive tool” that can also help travelers plan their trips. Gemini can also connect and access “relevant information from the Google tools you use every day,” like Google Flights, Google Hotels, Google Maps, and Google Docs, according to a Google spokesperson. You can check flights, hotels, and driving directions in a single conversation with Gemini.
I tested Skyscanner’s AI trip planner and Google’s Gemini to see if they could find me the cheapest round-trip flights from Honolulu to New York for the week of August 18-25. For reference, a Google Flights search Thursday afternoon revealed that the cheapest flight was a $761 round-trip ticket on United Airlines in its basic economy cabin. Here’s what I found.
What's it like to use Skyscanner's Savvy Search?
After creating an account on Skyscanner, I easily found the Savvy Search feature on the mobile app's home screen. I had to enter my departure city and answer the question, “What type of trip are you planning?” To get straight to the point, I typed in “What are the cheapest flights from Honolulu to New York for the week of August 18-25?”
Savvy Search gave me “three recommended destinations,” including New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. That’s not really what I asked for, but I guess the answer was technically there. I clicked to see flights to New York and was taken to a list of flights to compare. I could sort by “best,” “cheapest,” “fastest,” and “direct,” as well as choose my cabin class and add other travelers.
The cheapest flight offered was $645 round-trip, and while it was cheap, it didn't seem like an easy one to take. My flights there and back had to be made on my own, requiring me to recheck my bags and go through security again. Plus, it included an 11-hour layover on the way back.
I made a booking and, since Skyscanner is a flight comparison tool, the AI directed me to an external travel platform called Doing Hopa travel search engine founded in Iceland that creates “unique connecting flights,” according to its website. I’ve never used DoHop before, and when I went ahead with my booking, I discovered that I was also charged a $32.64 DoHop booking fee, and $12.50 if I wanted to bring a carry-on bag. (Only one personal item is free.)
The total was $664.83, about $97 less than what Google Flights found.
I also tested whether Savvy Search could find me cheap flights without a destination in mind (just my budget). It suggested Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Tokyo. The cheapest option to Los Angeles was two direct flights on Alaska Airlines for $341. Once again, it sent me to book externally, but this time through Kiwi.com.
Booking through third party providers Services like Kiwi or DoHop can be tricky for travelers, especially if things don’t go as planned, as airlines and hotels typically don’t claim liability if you didn’t book directly with them. Third-party support is often unreliable.
Is Tuesday always the best day to book?Here's what major travel platforms found when buying plane tickets.
What's it like to use Google Gemini to find cheap flights?
I accessed Gemini through its website (which required a Google account login) and asked the same question I had asked Skyscanner's trip planner. Gemini warned me that it “doesn't always answer correctly. Be sure to check the following flight details.”
Gemini offered five flight options, with the lowest price being a $615 round-trip flight on United Airlines, which was $49 less than what Skyscanner told me and $146 less than my own Google Flights search.
Gemini showed me the total trip duration with each flight option, plus stopovers. I clicked on the flight I wanted and was taken directly to Google Flights, where I could book through the airline or change my flights.
I tried other suggestions, like finding the cheapest flight from Honolulu for the same dates. (The answer was a flight to Maui for $160 roundtrip.) Since that answer was a bit obvious, I tried again, asking for flights out of Hawaii. (That would be to San Francisco starting at $354 roundtrip.) I also asked if it was a cheap time to fly from Honolulu to New York in August. (No, because summer vacation is peak tourist season.)
The verdict
When it comes to finding the cheapest flight, Gemini wins. I liked how easy it was to switch from Gemini to Google Flights. While I wouldn’t book the cheapest flight on Skyscanner, I think it’s a useful tool for comparing prices and seeing the range of options. (Maybe you don’t mind making the switch yourself.)
I especially like how Skyscanner’s tool recommended a variety of destinations when I asked for cheap flights from Honolulu, so it’s a good place to start if you don’t have a destination in mind. In fact, that’s what half of Skyscanner users do, according to Lindsay. You can also ask Skyscanner for cheap alternative destinations and search for flights from there.
Overall, both AI tools can integrate into any passenger's repertoire when searching for the best flight deals.
Kathleen Wong is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Hawaii. You can reach her at kwong@usatoday.com.
