Skyscanner Launches Flight-Finding Facebook Messenger Bot

[MacRumors]

Holiday booking service Skyscanner has announced a chat bot that enables users to book their vacation and search for holiday inspiration from within Facebook Messenger.

The conversation bot's main function is to search for flights on request and redirect users to the Skyscanner website to confirm their booking and complete payment.

Users can also ask the bot to search for holiday inspiration and find destinations they might be interested in based on their departure location.

The bot searches using current trends and cheap offers to offer up getaway inspiration, which can be activated by users in chat by tapping "Don't know" when asked where they would like to go.

Users can find the bot by typing "Skyscanner" into Messenger's search field. Users without the Facebook Messenger app can still converse with the bot by going to a browser redirect link that takes them to the web version of the social media company's messaging platform.

Skyscanner follows the likes of Poncho, KLM, 1-800-Flowers, CNN, and Foursquare in launching a dedicated bot. Facebook brought the bot support to its Messenger platform last month, allowing approved developers direct access to toolkits and live chat APIs so they can build chat programs for companies that let them interface with customers. Botlist is just one dedicated store that has recently arisen where users can discover chat bots they can interact with through the app.

Facebook Messenger is free on the App Store for iPhone. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Skyscanner Launches Flight-Finding Facebook Messenger Bot

 

[macfacts]

Hi, my name is Amber. How can I help you today?

 

[soupcan]

Well, one: it's Facebook Messenger which I thougt is something we should avoid like the plague and two: where's the human interaction? Even if it's over a chat app a human on the other end is infenitely times better than a bot who most of the time can't understand what you're trying to get across.

 

[AdeFowler]

I don't see the point of this (caveat: I'm old & don't use Facebook). Can someone explain how this is better than using the Skyscanner website, where you end up anyway?

 

[rdas7]

I just gave this a try. As far as I can tell, it's pretty basic. You basically have to fill out a search form, just in a chat interface. It asks you where you're flying from, and to, and when. But you can't answer these things out of order, or be vague. It still doesn't understand "next week" or "for a week" parameters. And once you've given it the information, it says "searching for flights." But there's no progress bar or anything, so you don't know what you're supposed to do next. Maybe it'll improve.