Planning a trip used to start with a search bar. Increasingly, it starts with a question typed into a chatbot: Where can I fly cheaply in November? Southwest Airlines wants to be part of that answer.
On Oct. 6, Southwest announced what it calls “a first-of-its-kind U.S. airline plugin in ChatGPT.” The tool lets travelers discover Southwest destinations and shop for its flights without leaving the conversation. The airline built it with OpenAI and Amazon Web Services and calls it the first phase of what it describes as a phased, AI-powered approach to booking.
Southwest says the goal is to show up earlier in a customer’s planning and offer a more direct path from discovery to booking options.
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Source: Southwest Airlines, “Southwest Airlines Launches First-of-Its-Kind U.S. Airline Plugin in ChatGPT,” PR Newswire, Oct. 6, 2026. More information: Southwest.com/chatgpt.