A money expert has claimed a few simple air prompts saved him more than £700 on flights after using ChatGPT as his personal travel agent
ChatGPT is getting smarter and smarter, and while AI still might be a terrifying part of technology for many, it might be able to save you some money on your next trip. Getting a good deal on your holiday can be a hard and often time-consuming task.
Hours can be spent refreshing Sky Scanner, Google Flights or Kayak, trying to find the cheapest flights, trying different airport connections and times, all trying to save you a few pounds.
But after your hundredth tab has been opened and you lose track of where you actually heading to the first place, many just give up and head to the travel agents.
But all that faff could be saved, as ChatGPT might be able to act as your very own travelling personal assistant, with one finance expert claiming it saved him as much as £700 on his flights.
Casper Opala, known as Casper Capital online, has more than eight million followers online and shares cost-saving tips, especially when it comes to saving you on travel, and his latest tip, using the popular AI, he claims, got him a flight for around £70 that originally cost more than £700.
His tip follows just seven different steps that you can copy and paste, which will save you time from having to dig around the internet across several different sites.
Although some of these methods have been around for years, and certain travel websites even wrote about them before ChatGPT was even dreamt up, the AI bot can collect all the data for you in a matter of seconds – saving you hours in the process.
Casper’s seven prompts:
- Find the cheapest way to fly from [City A] to [City B] next month, include hidden routes + alternate airports.’
- ‘Which budget airlines operate this route that aren’t listed on Google Flights or Skyscanner?’
- Suggest layover cities that cut the price, even if it requires two separate bookings.’
- Any mistake fares, flash sales, or unusually cheap flights departing [my airport] this month?’
- ‘Compare this flight across all platforms, where is it cheapest right now?’
- ‘Monitor this route for 4 days, alert me if the price dips below $95.’
- ‘Can booking two one-ways beat the round-trip price? Check both.’
While the tool can be a great place to start for guidance, and the prices are often correct, the tool is still in it’s early days and can be prone to some pricing errors. Writing for TravelBook, Laura Pomer warns: “On the downside, however, is the AI’s susceptibility to errors.
“They are programmed to always provide reliable answers. Users would do well to thoroughly check results. ChatGPT does not access live flight booking data. Information on supposed current prices can be inaccurate.”
However, Laura does suggest a few methods for still using the AI tool, but stresses that there is no guarantee. The writer advises people to be as specific as possible with prompts, such as adding time frames, widening the search to desired areas rather than specific airports, or naming more inventive options such as budget airlines, split-ticketing options, etc.