We Tested 12 AI Travel Booking Tools: Most Airline Tools Got Prices Right, Most Hotel Plugins Didn’t

Airlines and hotels are betting on AI to help people plan trips. Do the tools work?

Radisson, Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Wyndham, and Southwest Airlines all have ChatGPT plugins now — with Southwest launching earlier today. Gondola has a plugin built around your loyalty accounts, and Hyatt, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, and Seats.aero all have AI search tools.

The promise is the same everywhere: Describe your trip and get a real price. We tested 12 of these tools and checked every price against the brand’s own website to see if the information (and price) were accurate.

The short version: The airline tools and Seats.aero mostly got it right. The hotel plugins were a mess, including Hyatt’s ChatGPT plugin, which showed award prices that were consistently wrong — promising prices that were cheaper than what was actually available.

Here’s a look at the tools, what they got right, and where they need to improve.

Overview: How the 12 Tools Performed

What’s New With These Tools?

Southwest’s plugin, @Southwest Airlines, is the newest. It launched on October 6, 2026, as the first ChatGPT plugin from a U.S.-based airline. You can search destinations, schedules, and fares across all 4 Southwest fare types, and a button inside ChatGPT sends you to Southwest.com to complete the reservation. Southwest calls this the first step in a phased approach to AI booking with OpenAI and Amazon Web Services.

The carrier hasn’t said what comes next. Points bookings aren’t supported at this time.

Other offerings include:

• ChatGPT plugins: Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott Bonvoy, Wyndham, and Southwest each have their own. Tag the brand, like @Hilton, at the start of your prompt.
• Gondola: The hotel search site’s ChatGPT plugin launched in July 2026. Link your email, and it builds a profile from your loyalty accounts, trips, and points balances.
• Hyatt: AI search now sits in the regular Destination box.
• Alaska Airlines: Destination Search with AI is still labeled beta.
• American Airlines: an AI trip-inspiration tool built by Mobi and hosted outside aa.com.
• Seats.aero: an Assistant for award searches, with a Pro-only Deep Research mode

How We Tested the Tools

For the hotel tools, we used the same search wherever possible: downtown Chicago, staying November 13-15, 2 adults, and comparing cash and points. For the airline tools, we asked for a warm beach getaway on a November long weekend, plus a search using miles.

We checked each price on the brand’s own website immediately after receiving the AI results. All ChatGPT testing used a free account.

Hotel ChatGPT Plugins: Hilton and Wyndham Get It Right

Hilton‘s plugin was the best of the group. It returned 19 Chicago hotels with totals that include taxes. At the Palmer House, it showed $632 and 150,000 points for 2 nights. Hilton.com showed $631.68 and 75,000 points a night.

Wyndham matched to the dollar at 3 hotels, and its 30,000-point prices were right, as well. IHG‘s cash prices matched ihg.com at all 5 hotels we checked. However, it didn’t return any points prices, so it can’t help with cash versus points.

Hyatt’s plugin didn’t work well. It listed Hyatt Regency Chicago at 12,000 points per night when Hyatt.com charged 15,000. Park Hyatt Chicago showed 21,000 instead of 25,000. All 10 hotels we checked were 3,000 to 4,000 points low, which inflates the value math. It claimed 3.46 cents per point at the Chicago Athletic Association. With the real 20,000-point price, it’s closer to 3 cents.

Marriott Bonvoy‘s plugin returned an error on all 6 attempts across 2 days, including a simple question about the JW Marriott Chicago.

Radisson was hit or miss. In London, all 11 hotels matched Radisson’s site within about $1. In Amsterdam, only 3 of 9 did; the Radisson Blu Amsterdam City Center showed €560.81 versus a €448 members’ rate. And our search for a hotel with a gym near the Eiffel Tower, close to an example from Radisson’s own announcement, found nothing.

Gondola: Most Personal, But Not Precise

Gondola was the only tool that knew the user. It pulled in my Hyatt Globalist status and points balance. On a Tokyo search, it told me how many more points I needed for 2 nights at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. That’s useful.

The prices behind the advice weren’t. All 5 Chicago Hyatts were exactly 2,500 points a night too high (stating 17,500 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago versus 15,000 points actual cost). Cash rates labeled “all-in” came in below Hyatt.com’s pre-tax price at 4 of 5 hotels.

In an email, Gondola told us that setting the plugin to “Allow all actions” helps, “otherwise ChatGPT might refuse to look at your actual travel profile.” The spokesperson also said the results are more consistent with Claude than ChatGPT.

Hyatt.com’s AI Search: Right Prices, Loose Filters

Hyatt’s AI tool uses Hyatt’s regular search, so the prices were correct: 15,000 points or $331 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

Following instructions is another story. “Hotels in downtown Chicago under 20,000 points a night” returned 33 hotels, including O’Hare and Naperville properties up to 28 miles away. An all-inclusive Mexico search capped at 25,000 points put Dreams Huatulco at the top, but it was $2,028 per night with no award space. It also didn’t read dates from the search. Hyatt’s own feature tour shows “Beach friendcation” pulling up a daycare in Long Beach.

Southwest’s ChatGPT Plugin: Right Prices, Bad Advice

The plugin from Southwest Airlines provides a comparison across all 4 of the carrier’s fare types, and the button that sends customers to the airline’s website leads to a page with the flight details filled out correct. The main issue was the ChatGPT plugin labeling certain fares as “corporate-negotiated” fares not available to the general public, even though these could be found on the airline’s website and were publicly available.

Moreover, there’s no ability to book with points at this time. Any attempts to get the plugin to show points pricing were impossible. Additionally, 2 of the 3 Low Fare Calendar panels failed to load — blocking access to a convenient tool for finding the cheapest dates to fly.

Alaska and American: Accurate Fares, Selective Listening

Alaska’s tool matched every fare we checked within $1. Seattle to Los Angeles showed $248 round-trip; Alaska’s site had $247. Portland to Honolulu matched exactly at $602. It understood dates in plain English but ignored “using points” and only returned cash fares. It also explained a $248 fare to Los Angeles as “likely to exceed your $300 budget.” The clarity was an issue.

American’s tool, built by Mobi, is more polished. It flags over-budget picks, shows the exact flights, and links to aa.com with the search filled in. Galveston matched at $221, though Galveston has no airline service, and the flights go to Houston. Tampa showed $247 versus $232 on aa.com. Cancun was a miss at $729 compared to $620.

Searching with AAdvantage miles worked. For example, Montego Bay showed 20,000 miles plus $152 round trip, and aa.com had 20,000 plus $151.42.

Seats.aero Assistant: Best for Award Travel

Every price we checked on Seats.aero matched the airline’s site. It found the same 20,000-mile Dallas to Montego Bay round trip. When I asked for business class from Los Angeles to Tokyo under 80,000 miles, it said none existed and listed American’s nonstop at 134,500 AAdvantage miles or 150,000 Alaska Atmos Rewards points. Both matched.

It also tells you how old its data is. It flagged 1 flight as last checked about 51 hours earlier, and the price was still right.

The downsides: It skips taxes and fees (which can be significant), answers can take up to 2 minutes, and there’s no booking link, even when we tested it with a paid Pro account.

Final Thoughts

These tools are great for ideas but can be unreliable for final prices, with a few exceptions. For award flights, Seats.aero was the most accurate. For cash fares, Alaska, American, and Southwest Airlines came close — though these correct prices could be accompanied by incorrect commentary. On the hotel side, Hilton’s plugin was the most reliable.

Whichever tool you use, confirm the price on the airline or hotel’s website before you transfer any points to make a booking. Points transfers usually can’t be reversed.