4 ms·

Search and book flights directly from your favorite AI assistant! And book! That's a very exciting bit of tooling to add into an assistant, but there's lots of

by weego 1y ago

Search and book flights directly from your favorite AI assistant! And book! That's a very exciting bit of tooling to add into an assistant, but there's lots of complexities... Each result includes a booking link directly to the flight chosen Oh well, we're not at the future we hoped for yet then, but it's progress.

Eldodi 1y ago
The MCP clients are still missing some key features to get to a fully autonomous booking, but we are getting there: - With MCP Elicitations (https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/draft/client/elicitation https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/draft/client/e...) the server will be able to secure ask for complementary info like your name, passport and even your payments details. - With mcp-ui (https://github.com/idosal/mcp-ui https://github.com/idosal/mcp-ui), supporting MCP Clients could allow the server to re-create the same booking flow UI that you find today on an aggregator's website
- arbus5672 1y ago
  The specification of Elicitations begins with > Servers MUST NOT use elicitation to request sensitive information For any LLM based flows to gain enough trust by the general public to handle flows that involve money, esp large sums of money, we need the equivalent of “pad lock on my browser means I’m secure” level of something easy to understand and teach everyone to see.
frederic2507 1y ago
Not sure I'd trust just yet an autonomous agent with my wallet to complete the booking part
- ciaranmca 1y ago
  We need a benchmark to test this, give an agent access to a browser and card details and set it free.
bonoboTP 1y ago
Booking is basically a contract. How can the AI assistant accept the terms and conditions for you? Or maybe it could pop up a scrollable window with an Accept button? Not sure if such a thing exists yet.
- j45 1y ago
  Likely all the details (dates, flight plans) pulled together for you to just check out / approve.
- dghlsakjg 1y ago
  The courts have accepted that a company saying that you ticked a checkbox saying you have read and agree to a document in an entirely different location that they know you haven’t actually seen is a valid contract. I suspect the argument is going to get tricky, but the business interest will win out.
kylehotchkiss 1y ago
https://duffel.com https://duffel.com there are APIs to accomplish this FWIW, this isn't functionality path LLM/MCPs magically unlocked.
mejutoco 1y ago
This usecase could work with an api as well. But booking engines are not interested in providing such an api. I don't think this is a technical problem, but one of legal complications and incentives.
dzhiurgis 1y ago
Funny how annoying booking complex flights has become all while airlines (Ryanair) making it impossible to check in without full access to email (for 2fa) so you pay $40 per person at the airport. Kiwi kinda solved it but I’ve been cought out by this with other platforms.

by weego 1y ago

Eldodi 1y ago

The MCP clients are still missing some key features to get to a fully autonomous booking, but we are getting there: - With MCP Elicitations (https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/draft/client/elicitation https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/draft/client/e...) the server will be able to secure ask for complementary info like your name, passport and even your payments details. - With mcp-ui (https://github.com/idosal/mcp-ui https://github.com/idosal/mcp-ui), supporting MCP Clients could allow the server to re-create the same booking flow UI that you find today on an aggregator's website

arbus5672 1y ago
The specification of Elicitations begins with > Servers MUST NOT use elicitation to request sensitive information For any LLM based flows to gain enough trust by the general public to handle flows that involve money, esp large sums of money, we need the equivalent of “pad lock on my browser means I’m secure” level of something easy to understand and teach everyone to see.

frederic2507 1y ago

Not sure I'd trust just yet an autonomous agent with my wallet to complete the booking part

ciaranmca 1y ago
We need a benchmark to test this, give an agent access to a browser and card details and set it free.

bonoboTP 1y ago

Booking is basically a contract. How can the AI assistant accept the terms and conditions for you? Or maybe it could pop up a scrollable window with an Accept button? Not sure if such a thing exists yet.

j45 1y ago
Likely all the details (dates, flight plans) pulled together for you to just check out / approve.
dghlsakjg 1y ago
The courts have accepted that a company saying that you ticked a checkbox saying you have read and agree to a document in an entirely different location that they know you haven’t actually seen is a valid contract. I suspect the argument is going to get tricky, but the business interest will win out.

kylehotchkiss 1y ago

https://duffel.com https://duffel.com there are APIs to accomplish this FWIW, this isn't functionality path LLM/MCPs magically unlocked.

mejutoco 1y ago

This usecase could work with an api as well. But booking engines are not interested in providing such an api. I don't think this is a technical problem, but one of legal complications and incentives.

dzhiurgis 1y ago

Funny how annoying booking complex flights has become all while airlines (Ryanair) making it impossible to check in without full access to email (for 2fa) so you pay $40 per person at the airport. Kiwi kinda solved it but I’ve been cought out by this with other platforms.