Keep in mind when ChatGPT launched and each startup founder you understand began throwing across the phrase “democratization”? Most of that was advertising fluff. However strip away the buzzwords, and AI does have one real superpower: it might tear by way of knowledge sources quicker than any human.
So I made a decision to show AI free on the usually irritating endeavor of discovering flight costs which can be truly inexpensive. Might Google’s flight instruments, ChatGPT, and Claude replicate what I usually do with value comparability websites loaded on a number of tabs, all flashing warnings that there are solely two seats on the aircraft left?
Google Flight Deals
You may have missed the news, but Google Flights got an AI glow-up and now comes with enhanced AI search through a new tool Google is calling Flight Deals.
Google says its flight tool’s main priority is helping you to save money, so until it’s time for you to book a flight, perhaps you’re better off brainstorming destinations using Gemini or one of many different top AI assistants available on the market.
As soon as you understand the place you’re flying off to, go to Flight Deals and also you’ll instantly discover a immediate field the place all of the magic will occur. The method is fairly simple from there. You may kind one thing alongside the strains of: “Discover one of the best round-trip air fares from LAX this January.”
Nonetheless, you may as well hold your choices open and go down a extra winding route, asking for example, for offers to destinations that would be warm in January. Flight Offers will then deal with related locations that match your description and present a extra curated checklist of flights.
ChatGPT agent
Using ChatGPT agent to seek for one of the best offers for round-trips ranging from JFK in January 2026 noticed me obtain a neat desk with particular dates for every vacation spot together with the corresponding value.
ChatGPT Agent is a device that lets the chatbot take over your actions for you, looking the online for one of the best present offers. You may entry it by clicking the + button within the chatbox and choosing Agent.
The primary drawback was that the flight choices didn’t include a direct reserving hyperlink, so I needed to manually seek for the required connection in a separate tab. The flight occasions and costs did find yourself matching what ChatGPT listed, in order that was in fact constructive.
Claude
Over on Claude, things got off to a shaky start as it warned schedules for January 2026 flights “likely aren’t available yet”. Then it immediately proved itself wrong by listing flight deals for the selected month. On balance no harm done, right?
What really came in handy was Claude’s Connectors, particularly the one for journey website Kiwi. Turning on this Connector means Claude has real-time entry to one of the best flight offers accessible, together with direct hyperlinks to guide the specified journey itinerary. In that respect, this was undoubtedly a step up from ChatGPT.
ChatGPT and Claude research
Both ChatGPT and Claude offer deep research modes, so I asked both to look into the best strategies to land deals for flights in January.
ChatGPT consulted 18 sources and determined it’s best to book flights on a Sunday at least two months ahead of your desired departure date. It suggested avoiding rigid dates as shifting your trip by a day or two could make huge differences in price.
Meanwhile, Claude examined over 300 sources to present its suggestions. While it was a bit more thorough in its search, it also took over 8 minutes to complete the task. It corroborated most of what ChatGPT presented but did give more detailed explanations on how I could be impacted by fuel surcharges, dynamic currency conversion, and opportunities to be found in ‘mistake fares’.
Specific flights
Of course sometimes you can only work with what you have. So for my final test, I kept things very specific. I put ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Flights head-to-head, asking each to find direct flights between Chicago O’Hare and Paris for January 7-13.
My trusty price comparison website Skyscanner said such a trip would set me back around $547. So that was the price to beat.
Google Flight Deals found the same flights for $16 dollars less so things were looking promising.
Using ChatGPT without its Agent only got me indications of what kind of flights could be suitable but accurately highlighted the cheapest price I’d be paying would be around $540. Turning on ChatGPT Agent showed no meaningful improvement.
Lastly, it was Claude’s time to shine. Again with its Connectors enabled I asked Claude to crawl the internet for the best deal for my Paris trip. Within seconds it had also clocked in on the flights Skyscanner recommended and gave me a direct link showing a final price of $543.
Google Flight Deals came out on top, surfacing the cheapest option and earning a well-deserved applause. If I were to look at the bigger picture, though, the results all land within roughly the same margin of error — with prices liable to shift depending on the day (or even the hour) you happen to run the search.
Final thoughts
All things considered, you’re unlikely to uncover any special offers using ChatGPT, Google Flight Deals, or Claude that aren’t already visible on standard price-comparison sites. However, even if you’re using general AI assistants that don’t just handle flight prices, you won’t be getting ripped off.
The main upside is convenience: if you’ve started planning your dream vacation in an AI chat, you can proceed with looking for deals there, no further tabs are required.
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