Where AI helps with quotes and sourcing, and where people still win: complex trips, trust and last-minute changes.
I love AI. I use it every day. But booking a jet is not like booking a hotel room, and pretending it is helps no one.
Where AI shines
It compares aircraft and prices in minutes, work that used to take a morning of phone calls. It finds empty legs and repositioning flights no one has time to dig up by hand. It can draft an itinerary, compare flight times between two airports, and remind you what you flew last year. That part is real, and it’s great.
Where it falls short
Try a five-leg trip with a dog, a customs stop and a 6 AM catering order. Then add weather, a meeting that runs late, or an aircraft that goes into maintenance the night before. An AI can tell you what went wrong. Fixing it takes a person who knows who to call.
AI also only knows what’s online. It can’t tell you which operator picks up the phone at 2 AM, which FBO will actually have your car waiting on the ramp, or whether a price that looks too good is too good to be true.
Trust is personal
When you’re putting your family on a plane, you want a name and a phone number, not a chatbot. You want someone who remembers how you like to fly and tells you the truth when a plan won’t work.
How I’d use it
- Ask AI for a first look at options and rough prices.
- Ask a person to check the operator, the aircraft and the details.
- Keep that person on speed dial for the day plans change.
My take
Let AI do the fast part. Keep a person you trust for everything else. Anyone who says you only need one of the two is selling something.