ETIHADBEYOND BORDERSFeature 02 · AI Flight Search
Key user flows — say it, see it, book it
"Find flights to anywhere in Europe for under 00 for two people."
ETIHADBEYOND BORDERSFeature 02 · AI Flight Search
Natural-language intent becomes a transparent, editable understanding, then a curated shortlist. Every step keeps the user in control — refine, change times, add extras — with the AI doing the heavy lifting and explaining itself along the way.
Gold steps are AI-driven; diamonds are decisions or system actions; amber boxes are handled edge cases. This reflects the current prototype, including the first-run hint, real voice input, collapsed time options, the budget-headroom cue and Economy-only extras.
A prominent “Ask Etihad” entry above a working classic search: To, Dates and Guests open the same refine sheets, and “Search flights” asks for a destination first. A dismissible hint offers examples the assistant can really do.
The assistant opens as a sheet. Type or speak the whole sentence; starter chips lower the blank-page cost. When it closes, focus returns to where the traveller was.
Intent is checked against what the prototype can actually search: six European cities from Abu Dhabi.
Continues to “here’s what I understood”.
It says so plainly — “I can’t search Tokyo yet” — and offers “Show Europe options”. It never pretends.
Intent becomes editable chips (destination, budget, travellers, dates). A short list of notes says what it assumed or changed: a converted €/£/AED budget, a guest count capped at 4, a place it had to leave out.
Proceeds to ranked results.
The assistant explains it finds flights and offers examples — no dead end.
Destinations are filtered to the party-total budget the AI parsed.
A short, ranked shortlist by destination with a plain “why this trip”. Classic search shows the same trips with no budget cap. Fares are marked indicative.
Shows ranked destinations, top pick first.
Empty state offers one-tap fixes: raise budget, or fewer travellers.
Outbound & return legs, with same-day time options collapsed behind “Change time” to keep it calm, and a budget-headroom cue (“comes in 8 under your 00 budget”).
Economy Value / Flex / Business with live totals. For Economy, optional paid extras (chauffeur, extra bag, seat) can be added; hidden for Business, which already includes them.
Optional extras offered — user opts in, total updates live.
Extras hidden — chauffeur & lounge already included.
Reference, departure date and time, and any extras itemised. Business bookings add “Arrange your complimentary chauffeur”.
“Done” keeps the booking: it becomes the next trip on Home and appears in My Trips. “Arrange your chauffeur” opens the chauffeur flow with the real flight and date.
A natural-language entry point has to handle ambiguity and dead ends gracefully — these are the fallbacks built into the flow.
The assistant stays in scope — it explains it can find flights and offers example prompts rather than failing silently.
Instead of an empty list, it states the lowest achievable price and offers one-tap fixes (raise budget, fewer travellers).
Refine chips, an edit-criteria sheet and an exact-date calendar (with daily prices) let the user steer; an undo bar reverses changes.
Where speech isn’t supported or permission is denied, the mic degrades gracefully to typing — never a dead control.
€, £ and AED budgets are converted, and the conversion is shown as a note rather than silently applied.
Capped at 4 with a note that says so, never silently.
An inline message appears and focus moves to the field.
A Business booking opens the chauffeur flow pre-filled with the flight, date and times.