Google is adding three new travel features to AI Mode in Search, allowing users to track airfare while chatting with AI, see award prices in points and miles, and even complete hotel bookings without leaving Google.

Google AI Mode Adds Flight Price Tracking, Points And Miles Searches, And Hotel Booking

Google is rolling out a trio of new travel features in AI Mode in Search, further blurring the line between searching for a trip, planning it, and actually booking it.

The three additions are:

Conversational flight price tracking
Flight and hotel searches displaying prices in points or miles
Hotel booking directly through AI Mode

None of these concepts is entirely new on its own, but putting them inside the same conversational search experience is something new.

Google AI Mode Can Now Track Flight Prices For You

Google Flights has offered price tracking for years. What’s new is that you can now set it up while having a conversation with AI Mode.

For example, you might tell Google:

I want to fly from Los Angeles to Paris for a week in October, preferably nonstop and in business class.

AI Mode can quickly offer flight options based on those parameters, but you can now simply ask it to “track these flight prices for me.”

After you confirm the request, Google will monitor the fares and send you an email when prices change.

The feature is available in more than 180 countries and territories.

I already use Google Flights price alerts extensively, so the underlying functionality here is familiar. The improvement is removing more of the friction. Instead of constructing a search, applying filters, and then setting an alert, you can describe what you actually want in normal language and tell Google to keep an eye on it.

Useful? Perhaps not for the way I use Google Flights, but it will be to many.

But the next feature is far more interesting to me.

Google Search Can Now Show Flights And Hotels In Points And Miles

Google is also bringing loyalty currency into AI Mode, allowing travelers to ask for flights or hotels using points and miles rather than cash.

Google offers this example:

“I want to travel from Atlanta to Miami using my AA miles. Help me find some options for nonstop flights departing Oct 9 and returning on Oct 12.”

AI Mode can then display the award rates using current data supplied directly by participating loyalty programs.

At launch, Google says support will include:

Alaska Airlines / Hawaiian Airlines
American Airlines
Choice Hotels International
Hilton
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

More programs are coming, which of course will make all the difference in the world.

Searching American Airlines awards is one thing. The real value will come if Google eventually incorporates programs like Aeroplan, Flying Blue, British Airways Club, United MileagePlus, Avianca LifeMiles, and other airline and credit card currencies that can be used across large airline alliances.

Imagine being able to ask:

Find me the cheapest nonstop business class award from Los Angeles to Europe during the first two weeks of November using American, Alaska, or Hawaiian miles.

It potentially puts my consulting business, Award Expert, out of business! 😉

Conceptually, that’s much closer to how a normal person actually thinks about a trip. But again, the usefulness of this feature will depend heavily on the data Google receives and how comprehensive the participating programs become…I look forward to testing it out.

It will also be interesting to see how well AI Mode understands the nuances of award travel.

A 100,000-mile award is not necessarily worse than a 80,000-mile award if one involves $30 in taxes and the other carries $800 in carrier-imposed surcharges. Nor are all points created equal.

But simply incorporating loyalty currencies into mainstream Google travel search is a big step.

As an aside, Seats.aero already has a great plug-in to monitor equivalent mileage pricing on the Google Flights search page (you don’t even have to be in AI mode).

You’ll Also Be Able To Book Hotels Through AI Mode

The third addition takes puts Google back in the travel agent business, though seemingly indirectly for now.

You can describe what you’re looking for in a hotel and AI Mode will present a visual list of options, including guest reviews and other factors for comparison. Once you settle on a property, you’ll be able to select “Continue on Google” and complete the booking with the chosen partner using Google Pay.

Initial hotel booking partners will include:

Booking.com
Choice Hotels
Expedia
Hilton
Hotels.com
IHG
Marriott
Priceline
Trip.com
Wyndham

The feature is beginning to roll out in English in the United States and should become available more broadly over the coming weeks. Note that Hyatt is missing right now…

Google has been steadily moving from simply returning links toward actually helping users complete tasks. Hotels are an obvious application because Google already has the inventory, pricing, maps, photos, reviews, and booking links sitting in front of us. Now AI can stitch those pieces together conversationally.

A Google spokesperson told Live And Let’s Fly that these are direct bookings, not OTA bookings (that might not carry elite benefits)…your reservation is treated as if booked directly from the hotel in the case of Hilton or Marriott.

CONCLUSION

Google is adding flight price tracking, points and miles searches, and hotel booking to AI Mode in Search.

The flight tracking feature makes an already useful Google Flights tool easier to access, while hotel booking is another logical step toward making AI Mode capable of completing an entire trip-planning process.

But I’m most interested in the ability to search award rates with points and miles. The initial airline and hotel list is limited, but if Google expands this to the major transferable currencies and loyalty programs, it could eventually make one of the most frustrating parts of travel planning considerably easier…it would be a tool that I would certainly use for myself and others.