Google's AI Mode can now track flight prices and help book hotels

[Phil]

Google is adding trip planning tools directly to AI Mode in Search, letting users track flight prices with email alerts, see flight and hotel costs in airline miles or hotel points, and book a hotel entirely through conversation without leaving the search page. Users can describe when and where they want to fly and get current prices pulled from more than 300 partner airlines and travel sites, and can simply say track these flight prices for me to get notified by email if the fare later changes. Flight price tracking is now available in more than 180 countries and territories, though not currently within the European Economic Area

The points and miles feature launches with support for Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, American Airlines, Choice Hotels, Hilton and Wyndham, with Accor, Flying Blue, Hyatt, LATAM and Lufthansa's Miles and More program arriving in the coming weeks. For hotels, users describe their trip and preferences to get a list of options complete with guest reviews and key comparison factors, then select Continue on Google to complete a booking through a supported partner, paid securely through Google Pay. Hotel booking has begun rolling out in the United States in English for now

These updates build on nine months of steady development inside AI Mode, following the Canvas itinerary planning panel that arrived last November and individual hotel price tracking added back in April. Curious what people think about Google moving from a place where you research a trip toward a place where you actually book and pay for the whole thing directly

Google's AI Mode can now track flight prices, help book hotels, and more | TechCrunchtechcrunch.com

[NoLimitsBen18]

Moving from pure research toward actual completed transactions is such a significant shift for Google specifically, since it puts them in genuinely direct competition with dedicated travel booking sites rather than just sending traffic toward them the way search traditionally has

[Harry]

180 plus countries but notably excluding the EEA feels like a genuinely deliberate regulatory hedge on Google's part specifically, probably reflecting real ongoing uncertainty about how European consumer protection and competition rules would actually apply to this exact kind of integrated AI booking flow

[FinnBalor]

Nine months of steady incremental building toward this specific moment shows real deliberate product strategy rather than Google just bolting AI features onto search randomly and reactively. Worth acknowledging that kind of patient sustained execution when you actually see it happening properly

[Merchant94]

Email alerts for price tracking feel almost quaint at this point given how much of everything else here happens entirely within one continuous conversational thread, but honestly that's probably still the actually correct notification channel most people genuinely check regularly

[Phil]

Points and miles pricing shown right alongside the standard cash price is honestly such a genuinely useful feature that traditional travel sites have somehow never bothered doing this well despite years of obvious demand for it.

Small addition but genuinely solves a real recurring daily frustration for frequent travelers specifically