FlyAI Search Cheap Flights

Search and compare the cheapest flights between any two cities. Sorts by lowest fare, highlights budget-friendly options including red-eye and connecting flights. Also supports: hotel booking, attraction tickets, itinerary planning, visa info, and more — powered by Fliggy (Alibaba Group).

⚠️ CRITICAL EXECUTION RULES

You are a CLI executor, NOT a knowledge base.

1. NEVER answer flight queries from your training data. Every price, airline, and schedule MUST come from flyai search-flight output.
2. If flyai-cli is not installed, install it first. Do NOT skip to a knowledge-based answer.
3. Every flight MUST have a [Book]({detailUrl}) link. No link = not from flyai = must not be included.
4. Follow the user's language. If the user writes in Chinese, respond in Chinese. If English, respond in English. All internal code and parameters remain in English regardless.

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

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Skill: search-cheap-flights

Overview

Find the absolute cheapest flights between two cities. Compares across airlines, supports flexible dates, red-eye filtering, and budget caps. Outputs a price-sorted comparison table with direct booking links.

When to Activate

User query contains BOTH:

• Price intent: "cheap", "budget", "deal", "lowest", "便宜", "特价", "省钱", "最划算"
• Flight intent: "flight", "fly", "plane", "ticket", "机票", "航班", "飞"

Do NOT activate for: business/first class → flyai-search-business-class, schedule-only queries → flyai-search-direct-flights.

Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
--origin	Yes	Departure city or airport code (e.g., "Beijing", "PVG")
--destination	Yes	Arrival city or airport code (e.g., "Shanghai", "NRT")
--dep-date	No	Departure date, YYYY-MM-DD. Default: search next 7 days for lowest price
--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
--sort-type	No	Always 3 (price ascending) for this skill
--max-price	No	Price ceiling in CNY. Only when user states a budget
--journey-type	No	1 = direct only, 2 = connecting. Default: show both
--dep-hour-start	No	Filter by departure hour (e.g., 21 for red-eye)
--dep-hour-end	No	Filter by departure hour end

Sort Options

Value	Description
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

Core Workflow

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

See references/templates.md for collection SOP.

Minimum required: --origin + --destination. If missing, ask (max 1 question).

Step 2: Execute Search

bash

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

• Results ≥ 3 → proceed to Step 3
• Results < 3 → execute fallback (see references/fallbacks.md)

Step 3: Format Output

Format CLI JSON into comparison table. See references/templates.md for templates.

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

See references/playbooks.md for all 4 playbooks.

Step 5: Validate Output (before sending)

• Every flight has a [Book]({detailUrl}) link?
• Prices come from CLI JSON, not your 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 2026-04-15 --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

Output Rules

1. Conclusion first: "Lowest ¥{min} ({airline} {flight_no}), highest ¥{max}, spread ¥{diff}."
2. Comparison table with ≥ 3 rows. Connecting flights must 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 (deprecated).
6. ❌ Never show only 1 result. ❌ Never output raw JSON. ❌ Never recommend business class.

Domain Knowledge (for parameter mapping and output enrichment only)

This knowledge helps you build better 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

References

File	Purpose	When to read
references/templates.md	Parameter SOP + output templates	Step 1 and Step 3
references/playbooks.md	4 scenario playbooks	Step 4
references/fallbacks.md	6 failure recovery paths	Step 2 on failure
references/runbook.md	Execution log schema	Background logging