The price of transportation is going up and artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly moving into our lives, so why not combine them to see if there's some kind of solution to the stress and higher costs of Summer Vacation 2026?
One expert says new tools are coming online, among them Grok and ChatGPT, and they can help in finding bargains and provide tips on how to design travel itineraries that can save time.
But Chris Ameneci, a former Texan who's now deeply involved in AI, has come up with a combination vacation transportation guide and search engine for the best vacation ideas and prices, called SeatCash.
Once you know you want to go somewhere, "When is the exact time you want to buy? Or how to give you an idea of how to execute your idea and plan it even better?" he says.
It's there that SeatCash.com comes in, Ameneci, because it features hacks for so many things that are hard to discern with plain-vanilla AI planning, such as naming the peak airline return-home days, or how to find "Buy Now" features that can save cash during this time of increasing fares and long check-in lines.
"We studied airlines, we have looked at market trades, we have trillions of data points on how airlines make offers, so if you show up and say you want to go somewhere, we can tell you what's going to happen, right to the day that you decide to leave, what the surprises might be," and what options you might have if you decide to "get lazy" and take an extra day here or there, the travel technology pioneer adds.
And the program offers plenty of practical advice not just on taking trips but also creating tips on how to get started.
"From Houston, for instance, any place you want to go, take Frontier Airlines. The rest are quite expensive.
"And by the way, the average fare for this coming Memorial Day weekend, if you haven't purchased it yet, is $500 to travel."
It may seem expensive, but if you plan to travel, what you need are trips tips, facts and an insider's point of view.
Amenechi is an airline industry veteran who says he wants to make travel easier, and when it comes to planning, his product listens to desires, draws conclusions and makes the kind of recommendations that would greatly reduce the stress of planning vacations, especially in price-sensitive situations such as the travel markets today.