This month, Alaska Airlines made its AI-powered flight search tool available to all website visitors. During initial trials in April and May with the feature only open to 5 and 15 per cent of searchers, it was reported as imperfect but promising for the future of travel booking.
The “AI destination search tool” leverages tech from Microsoft and OpenAI’s generative AI to offer customers a new and inspiring way to search for flights. Notably, the tool incorporates the airline’s loyalty programme, enabling visitors to search for flights requiring a specific number of loyalty points or for those that will earn them many points.
Highlighting the tool’s ability to address a common frustration for passengers, Natalie Bowman, Managing Director of Product and Digital Experiences, Alaska Airlines told Skift last month:
“This is a pain point that we know our mileage plan members have,” Bowman said. “People spend a lot of time looking for award flights, and this helps them create a shortcut to get to that very quickly.”
Building on this, the MD of Product and Digital Experiences explained:
“A travel experience that focuses more on your end-to-end travel journey is where we want to go. For us, it’s really putting our loyalty program at the core of it because we have so many partners where you can earn miles or redeem miles. We think AI could be a huge enabler of a really cool experience there.”
Additionally, the airline hopes this search function will reduce the time passengers take to decide on a destination and book flights. Travel Weekly reported Bowman saying that, on average, flight shoppers interact with Alaska 16 times before buying a ticket, adding:
“We think if we can reduce that time, get people to a decision faster, it will increase our conversion and bring us more revenue.”
Looking to the future, the airline plans to introduce a more sophisticated tool layered over Google’s Gemini AI platform, integrating interactive maps, photographs, and aerial views of destinations with richer content. Try the current version for yourself here.
At World Aviation Festival, Alaska’s Director of Innovation and its SVP Merchandising and Innovation will be speaking about transforming the guest experience through AI and emerging technologies. Book your ticket now!
For more like this see:
- Revolutionising travel planning: Skyscanner’s generative AI tool
- Deploying next-generation airline loyalty programs
