I tested AI to save money on travel. Here’s what actually worked — and the tools I recommend

In August, I compared flights from New York City to Paris for two people from April 30 to May 9, 2027, with the sites mentioned above and relevant airlines. I found the lowest prices with Skyscanner, iMean.ai and an Expedia search through Claude (which required connecting to Expedia). However, this isn’t a scientific approach, as prices continuously change and I only searched a specific route and dates.

To find the best prices, it’s a good habit to compare multiple travel sites and review the prices available when you book directly with the travel provider. Don’t get too attached to a single tool, as it’s unlikely to surface the best prices every time.

Keep in mind that the lowest sticker price a travel aggregator pulls up may not be the best deal, and be sure to add taxes and fees, which aren’t always included. If you have access to promotional pricing or there’s a fare sale, those usually aren’t factored in search results, either.

Membership travel sites

Most of the best travel credit card issuers offer a travel-booking portal for cardholders. These are worth checking for more than just prices; you may have access to additional benefits and not realize it.

The perks available for these bookings can vary by card, but several of the most popular credit card rewards programs offer robust benefits at select luxury hotels. The American Express Platinum Card® provides access to the Fine Hotels and Resorts program, which comes with perks like daily complimentary breakfast for two, guaranteed 4 p.m. late check-out, room upgrade on arrival (when available) and a $100 property credit. But you’ll have to book an eligible hotel through AmexTravel.com to receive these benefits.

Costco Executive members earn 2% back on qualifying Costco purchases (up to a cap of $1,250 back annually), including travel reservations booked through Costco Travel. And any Costco Anywhere Visa® Card holder earns 3% back on eligible travel purchases (including Costco Travel) regardless of membership tier.

Once you’ve found the best price, you’re halfway to maximizing your travel budget. The next step is to set yourself up to take advantage of price drops via price tracking — which is one of the better ways to use AI to save on travel. Prices are constantly in flux, and getting notified when you can rebook for less can save you hundreds of dollars.

To start, you’ll want fully refundable travel with no change fees and a generous cancellation policy. Booking fully refundable airfare, car rentals and hotel rates with no change or cancellation fees is usually more expensive, but it can be worth it for the added rewards or flexibility.

Non-refundable airfare may allow cancellations or changes, but the refund is granted as a travel credit or voucher. These credits can typically only be used with that airline and may be subject to expiration dates. With a refundable flight, the total cost (including taxes and fees) is returned to your original form of payment.

Just like when you’re price shopping, it’s important to understand all your options for tracking prices. There are notable differences in features, functions and cost, and what you need may change from one trip to the next.

Consider free tools

Depending on the site, you can set up price alerts for specific routes, flights, hotels, dates or destinations. You’ll get notified when prices change and can book or rebook if you’d like. Most of these services don’t monitor prices compared to your existing reservations (AutoSlash is an exception), so you could receive price alerts for flights that are more expensive than what you already booked. Plus, you’ll have to manually reprice or rebook your flight to realize the savings. Repricing keeps the same reservation, while rebooking creates a new one.

AI tools such as JetBack, Junova and Autopilot can track your reservations and automatically lock in savings when the price drops. This can make it much easier to track multiple flights, but you’ll pay for this privilege, and you’ll need to be comfortable sharing your reservation details.

Pay attention to the cost

Depending on the price-tracking service, there’s a flat fee (monthly or yearly), a commission based on a percentage of the savings or a combination of both. With a commission-based plan, the fee isn’t deducted from your savings. This is important if you’re receiving the refund as a travel credit. If a price tracker saves you $100 and charges a 25% fee, you won’t end up with a $75 travel credit. You’ll pay $25 and have a $100 travel credit to use with that airline.

It can be worth it to pay, but travel credits typically expire after a year. If you’re not regularly booking with the same airline, you could end up paying for credits you won’t use.

Understand the restrictions

As helpful as AI price-tracking tools can be, they’re limited by airline policies and fees. You’ll have to book directly with the airline for your fare to be eligible, and basic economy tickets are typically excluded because of the restrictions on changes. While these tools only work for select airlines, most of the major U.S.-based airlines are included, so U.S.-based travelers will find them most useful.

Further, these services typically won’t cancel or rebook your flight; instead, they reprice it through the airline, and you’ll receive a flight credit for the difference or a credit to the original payment for fully refundable fares. With repricing, your confirmation number, fare class and seat should remain the same.

Some of these services, like Autopilot and Gondola (which tracks cash prices for flights and hotels, but only award prices for hotels), can also track award prices and let you know when the rewards price drops. However, in this situation, you’ll have to manually rebook the award flight or hotel stay yourself to receive the rewards refund.

Protect your trip with the right travel insurance

If you have an internet connection, you have access to all the information you need to book the best possible trip. The problem is knowing what’s important, so use the chatbot as a travel expert that can direct you to the important information.

For example, if you’re not a seasoned traveler, you may forget to consider entry visa rules. Can you get a visa on arrival, or do you have to apply ahead of time? How much does the visa cost?

Chatbots can also help you stretch your vacation budget by rethinking parts of your trip. Is it cheaper to move the flights forward or backward a few days? Instead of spending an hour pouring over rental car prices, a chatbot can help build an itinerary that doesn’t require a rental car or only requires one for part of the trip.

Basic prompts for rethinking your travel

As you’re working with a chatbot to refine your travel plans, start with your parameters. Share as many details as you can, including:

• Travel dates
• Departure city and destinations
• Number of travelers and ages

If you have specific needs or preferences, those are also helpful to add to your chat prompt. For example, if you need wheelchair access or hate crowds, those are key details to include. Here are a few prompts you can use to get the process started:

• I’m planning a trip to [travel details]. What are five questions an experienced traveler would ask that a novice might miss? Focus on issues that could ruin the trip or blow the budget. Verify important details with links to the sources.
• You’re my travel agent. I’m planning a trip to [travel details]. What are the most important trade-offs to consider when I’m price shopping for flights, lodging and rental cars?

It’s a good idea to verify important details, like visa or customs rules. You can ask the chatbot to confirm that it didn’t make a mistake or pull information from an out-of-date source. But if there’s something that could prevent travel or disrupt the trip, I’d confirm those details with a direct outside source. For example, if you need to bring essential medication with you overseas, check with the embassy for any country you’re visiting or passing through to verify the laws.

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