3 ms·

This would be 100x more compelling if they exposed something closer to Google Flights Explore through MCP. The real value to agents isn’t “user already knows th

This would be 100x more compelling if they exposed something closer to Google Flights Explore through MCP. The real value to agents isn’t “user already knows the exact date and route, now just book it.” It’s “user is loosely considering Tokyo, doesn’t know when, so let me scan the next 3 months and surface the cheapest windows.” Agents should excel at processing more data than the user can hold in their head and then framing the best options. Releasing an MCP server is cool, but this still feels like a limited slice of what agents could actually do.

delfinom 1y ago
The problem I've been finding lately is airlines, even via searches like Google Flights will fluctuate prices hourly to daily. And I mean price changes that are nearly double sometimes for economy flights at random times (looks at Lufthansa) I can spend my time checking over a few days to see what the game is. The LLM Agent is gonna need a cron job system.... Otoh, LLMs booking flights? Airlines are going to exploit the ever loving shit out of that to jack rates for people not paying attention by detecting LLM queries which is completely legal.
- mips_avatar 1y ago
  I don't think the airlines win in a battle against agents. Look at what happened when Air Canada tried to keep seats.aero from scraping award prices to find saver fares, they lost technologically and legally. seats.aero is run by a solo developer and won. I think if more airlines try and do AI dynamic pricing like Delta did this year they're going to find AI agents are extremely good at adversarial booking. I think a really innovative airline booking provider would capitalize on this new dynamic by facilitating this lubrication of supply and demand. AI agents understand that a given consumer is just as interested in hiking the Dolomites as Patagonia. So they should be willing to surface something like what their best price is for Venice and Buenos Aires to fill the seats.
- dzhiurgis 1y ago
  My issue with google flights is heavy cache on smaller routes. My country needs 2 layovers to get to NZ which massively increases search space. Pretty much every result is “oops we can’t find this price anymore, it’s now 10x”. It’s still ok for finding some routes or ideas, but far from best for cheapest (ie it cant find cheapest country to book from like skyscanner). And don’t even get me started on business flight search - that’s basically conspiracy from airlines for you never to find deals.
atonse 1y ago
This is still better than me having to somehow encode: "find a flight for me, wife, 2 kids aged blah blah, to <destination>, i have family in <layover cities> so at most 1 layover, always avoid United airlines or anything operated by them, because I'd rather sail on a wooden plank across the atlantic like Greta Thunberg than fly United again." into a bunch of filters with 40 clicks.
- groestl 1y ago
  "Got it. Here's the booking confirmation for your trip to <destination>. I made sure the wooden plank is large enough to fit your whole family."
  - atonse 1y ago
    "For $300 more, you can float in a business class wooden plank made from reclaimed walnut"
- mips_avatar 1y ago
  Exactly these are the kinds of trips that the existing flight search operators can’t fulfill!!

delfinom 1y ago

The problem I've been finding lately is airlines, even via searches like Google Flights will fluctuate prices hourly to daily. And I mean price changes that are nearly double sometimes for economy flights at random times (looks at Lufthansa) I can spend my time checking over a few days to see what the game is. The LLM Agent is gonna need a cron job system.... Otoh, LLMs booking flights? Airlines are going to exploit the ever loving shit out of that to jack rates for people not paying attention by detecting LLM queries which is completely legal.

mips_avatar 1y ago
I don't think the airlines win in a battle against agents. Look at what happened when Air Canada tried to keep seats.aero from scraping award prices to find saver fares, they lost technologically and legally. seats.aero is run by a solo developer and won. I think if more airlines try and do AI dynamic pricing like Delta did this year they're going to find AI agents are extremely good at adversarial booking. I think a really innovative airline booking provider would capitalize on this new dynamic by facilitating this lubrication of supply and demand. AI agents understand that a given consumer is just as interested in hiking the Dolomites as Patagonia. So they should be willing to surface something like what their best price is for Venice and Buenos Aires to fill the seats.
dzhiurgis 1y ago
My issue with google flights is heavy cache on smaller routes. My country needs 2 layovers to get to NZ which massively increases search space. Pretty much every result is “oops we can’t find this price anymore, it’s now 10x”. It’s still ok for finding some routes or ideas, but far from best for cheapest (ie it cant find cheapest country to book from like skyscanner). And don’t even get me started on business flight search - that’s basically conspiracy from airlines for you never to find deals.

atonse 1y ago

This is still better than me having to somehow encode: "find a flight for me, wife, 2 kids aged blah blah, to <destination>, i have family in <layover cities> so at most 1 layover, always avoid United airlines or anything operated by them, because I'd rather sail on a wooden plank across the atlantic like Greta Thunberg than fly United again." into a bunch of filters with 40 clicks.

groestl 1y ago
"Got it. Here's the booking confirmation for your trip to <destination>. I made sure the wooden plank is large enough to fit your whole family."
- atonse 1y ago
  "For $300 more, you can float in a business class wooden plank made from reclaimed walnut"
mips_avatar 1y ago
Exactly these are the kinds of trips that the existing flight search operators can’t fulfill!!