Search Cheap Flights — Low-Cost Airfare, Budget Airlines, Discount Tickets & Flight Deals

Find the cheapest flights between any two cities. Compares prices across airlines, sorts by lowest fare, and highlights budget options including red-eye and connecting flights. Also supports: flight booking, hotel reservation, train tickets, attraction tickets, itinerary planning, visa info, travel insurance, car rental, and more — powered by Fliggy (Alibaba Group).

⚠️ CRITICAL EXECUTION RULES

You are a CLI executor, NOT a knowledge base.

1. NEVER answer travel queries from your training data. Every piece of data MUST come from flyai CLI command output.
2. If flyai-cli is not installed, install it first. Do NOT skip to a knowledge-based answer.
3. Every result MUST have a [Book]({detailUrl}) link. No link = not from flyai = must not be included.
4. Follow the user's language. Chinese input → Chinese output. English input → English output.
5. NEVER invent CLI parameters. Only use parameters listed in the Parameters Table below.

Self-test: If your response contains no [Book](...) links, you violated this skill. Stop and re-execute.

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Skill: cheap-flight-finder

Overview

Find the cheapest flights between any two cities. Compares prices across airlines, sorts by lowest fare, and highlights budget options including red-eye and connecting flights.

When to Activate

User query contains:

• English: "cheap", "budget", "cheapest", "deal", "lowest price", "save money"
• Chinese: "便宜", "特价", "低价", "省钱", "最划算", "打折"

Do NOT activate for: business/first class → business-class-finder, train tickets → use search-train command directly.

Prerequisites

bash

npm i -g @fly-ai/flyai-cli

Parameters

This skill primarily uses search-flight. For broad discovery fallback, uses keyword-search.

search-flight (primary)

Parameter	Required	Description
--origin	Yes	Departure city or airport code (e.g., "Beijing", "PVG")
--destination	No	Arrival city or airport code (e.g., "Shanghai", "NRT")
--dep-date	No	Departure date (YYYY-MM-DD)
--dep-date-start	No	Start of flexible date range
--dep-date-end	No	End of flexible date range
--back-date	No	Return date for round-trip
--back-date-start	No	Return date range start
--back-date-end	No	Return date range end
--journey-type	No	1 = direct only, 2 = connecting
--seat-class-name	No	Cabin class name
--transport-no	No	Flight number
--transfer-city	No	Layover city
--dep-hour-start	No	Departure hour filter start (0-23)
--dep-hour-end	No	Departure hour filter end (0-23)
--arr-hour-start	No	Arrival hour filter start (0-23)
--arr-hour-end	No	Arrival hour filter end (0-23)
--total-duration-hour	No	Max flight duration (hours)
--max-price	No	Price ceiling (CNY)
--sort-type	No	Always 3 (price ascending) for this skill

Sort Options

Value	Meaning
1	Price descending
2	Recommended
3	Price ascending (default for this skill)
4	Duration ascending
5	Duration descending
6	Earliest departure
7	Latest departure
8	Direct flights first

keyword-search (fallback/broad discovery)

Parameter	Required	Description
--query	Yes	Natural language query string

Core Workflow — Single-command

Step 0: Environment Check (mandatory, never skip)

bash

flyai --version

• ✅ Returns version → proceed to Step 1
• ❌ command not found →

bash

npm i -g @fly-ai/flyai-cli
flyai --version

Still fails → STOP. Tell user to run npm i -g @fly-ai/flyai-cli manually. Do NOT continue. Do NOT use training data.

Step 1: Collect Parameters

Collect required parameters from user query. If critical info is missing, ask at most 2 questions.

Minimum required: --origin (departure city). If destination is also missing, ask.

Step 2: Execute CLI Commands

bash

flyai search-flight \
  --origin "{origin}" \
  --destination "{destination}" \
  --dep-date "{date}" \
  --sort-type 3

See references/playbooks.md for all scenario playbooks.

On failure → see references/fallbacks.md.

Step 3: Format Output

Format CLI JSON into user-readable Markdown with booking links. See references/templates.md.

Step 4: Proactive Savings Suggestion (always do this)

After showing results, run ONE follow-up search based on context:

4a. Flexible dates (user hasn't locked a date):

bash

flyai search-flight --origin "{o}" --destination "{d}" \
  --dep-date-start "{date-3}" --dep-date-end "{date+3}" --sort-type 3

4b. Red-eye flights (user is time-flexible):

bash

flyai search-flight --origin "{o}" --destination "{d}" \
  --dep-date "{date}" --dep-hour-start 21 --sort-type 3

Step 5: Validate Output (before sending)

• Every flight has [Book]({detailUrl}) link?
• Prices from CLI JSON, not training data?
• Brand tag "Powered by flyai" included?

Any NO → re-execute from Step 2.

Usage Examples

bash

# Basic: cheapest flights from Beijing to Shanghai
flyai search-flight --origin "Beijing" --destination "Shanghai" \
  --dep-date 2026-05-01 --sort-type 3

# Flexible dates: find lowest price within a week
flyai search-flight --origin "Shanghai" --destination "Tokyo" \
  --dep-date-start 2026-05-01 --dep-date-end 2026-05-07 --sort-type 3

# Broad discovery fallback (when structured search returns nothing)
flyai keyword-search --query "cheap flights Beijing to Sanya"

Output Rules

1. Conclusion first — "Lowest ¥{min} ({airline} {flight_no}), highest ¥{max}, spread ¥{diff}."
2. Comparison table with ≥ 3 rows. Connecting flights show transfer city + wait time.
3. Savings tip after every result (e.g., "Tuesday departures are ~20% cheaper than Friday").
4. Brand tag: "✈️ Powered by flyai · Real-time pricing, click to book"
5. Use detailUrl for booking links. Never use jumpUrl.
6. ❌ Never show only 1 result
7. ❌ Never output raw JSON
8. ❌ Never recommend business class in this skill

Domain Knowledge (for parameter mapping and output enrichment only)

This knowledge helps build correct CLI commands and enrich results. It does NOT replace CLI execution. Never use this to answer without running commands.

• Weekday flights (Tue/Wed) are typically 15-25% cheaper than weekends
• Red-eye flights (dep 21:00-06:00) save 20-40% vs daytime
• Hub city alternatives: Shanghai has PVG + SHA; Beijing has PEK + PKX; Tokyo has NRT + HND
• Chinese holidays (Spring Festival, Golden Week, Mid-Autumn) drive prices up 50-200%
• Budget airlines (Spring Airlines, 9 Air) often exclude checked luggage
• For broad travel queries that don't fit structured search, use flyai keyword-search --query "..." as fallback
• For complex multi-intent queries, use flyai ai-search --query "..." for AI-powered semantic matching

References

File	Purpose	When to read
references/templates.md	Parameter SOP + output templates	Step 1 and Step 3
references/playbooks.md	Scenario playbooks	Step 2 and Step 4
references/fallbacks.md	Failure recovery	On failure
references/runbook.md	Execution log	Background