Exploring AI-Powered Automation for Flight Deal Discovery AI automation is transforming how we...
AI-Powered Flight Deals: Building an Automated Miles Optimizer with Playwright
How to Build an AI-Powered Flight Deals Finder with Playwright
This hands-on coding session documents the process of building an automated tool to search for the best ways to use American Airlines miles. An initial attempt using an open-source browser library proved unsuccessful, leading to a switch to Playwright for direct interaction with the AA website. The result is a functional script that searches multiple destinations, extracts pricing data, and helps identify the best redemption opportunities—all with minimal ongoing human effort.
Shifting from Browser Use to Playwright
The initial attempt to build this tool relied on an open-source browser automation library, which struggled with the American Airlines website interface. The shift to Playwright provided more direct control over browser interactions, ultimately leading to a more stable and efficient automation process. This is a key example of leveraging AI-driven automation solutions, similar to those used in AI Implementation Consulting for complex business processes.
Overcoming Navigation Challenges
Several technical obstacles had to be addressed during development:
- Network Idle Issues: Waiting for network idle states consistently caused delays, which were resolved by implementing fixed waiting periods.
- Form Element Interaction: Identifying and interacting with the correct DOM elements required careful inspection.
- Airport Code Simplification: Converting city names to airport codes made the search process more reliable.
The script successfully navigates to AA.com, clicks the "Redeem Miles" button, enters departure and destination airports, selects dates and initiates searches—an approach akin to workflow automation in Custom AI Solutions that optimizes business operations.
Data Extraction and Analysis
Once the search functionality was operational, additional features were implemented:
- Filtering for non-stop flights
- Sorting by lowest price
- Screenshot capture of flight options
- Price data extraction (both miles and fees)
In the updated version, a direct data scraping approach was created to extract pricing information, bypassing costly external APIs. This technique aligns with strategies discussed in Unstructured and Widely Variant Data Processing with AI LLMs Goldmine, where AI-driven solutions extract and structure valuable insights from complex datasets.
Practical Results
Running the script across seven locations and four time ranges (28 total combinations) over approximately four hours revealed key insights:
- San Jose, Costa Rica provided excellent redemption value.
- Fee fluctuations were significant, with the same flight showing fees of $77 vs. $7 just minutes apart.
- Enough data was gathered to identify patterns across multiple destinations, including Orlando and Denver.
The results showed that three trips could be booked with the available miles, making it an effective optimization strategy. The gathered data provided a clearer understanding of the best redemption opportunities.
Conclusion
This project demonstrates how targeted automation can solve real travel planning problems without requiring complex AI systems. In the final analysis, the script does not function as an AI agent, and there is no need to add agentic elements.
The script can be run regularly to monitor for deals, and the data processing makes it easy to identify the best opportunities. For those with programming knowledge and travel rewards to optimize, this approach offers a practical way to stretch travel miles further with minimal ongoing effort.
Take Your AI Automation to the Next Level
At 42RobotsAI we specialize in transforming business processes with cutting-edge AI implementation. Whether optimizing travel rewards, streamlining operations, or enhancing decision-making, our AI-driven solutions help businesses achieve real-world impact. If you're looking to harness AI for automation, efficiency, and data-driven insights, partner with 42RobotsAI today. Contact us to discover how custom AI solutions can elevate your business strategy.
