Lesson

Five agents planned the same trip, and the fastest one left out two stops

The poster gave Manus, ChatGPT's agent, Genspark, Grok and Lindy the same job: 3 nights in Austin for 2 people, flights from Raleigh and a hotel, $1,500 in total, 3 different options with links, and stop before booking. Each got one try in a fresh session and was scored on an 8-point checklist. Manus finished first in about 90 seconds with correct totals and real links, but its outbound flight took about 11 hours with 2 stops it never mentioned. ChatGPT's agent took 12 to 16 minutes, needed one nudge and gave 3 options on the same flights. Genspark said flight sites blocked it, so its fares were estimates, and Grok and Lindy mostly linked to general searches instead of real listings.

The lesson: Ask the agent to list the number of stops and total travel time for every flight, and click through before you trust a trip plan.

Where this comes from

Original post by @MichaelGannotti on X, Oct 17, 2026. We rewrote it in our own words. The result is what the poster reports.

Read the original

Copy-paste setup

Plan [NUMBER] nights in [CITY] for [PEOPLE], flying from [HOME AIRPORT] on [DATE] and back on [DATE], with a total budget of [BUDGET] for flights and hotel. Give me 3 options that use different flights. For each flight, list the airline, departure and arrival times, total travel time, number of stops and where they are. For each hotel, give the nightly price. Add up the total for each option and link to the actual listing, not a general search. If a site blocks you, say so and mark the price as an estimate. Do not book anything.

Our own prompt, written from what the source describes. We haven't run it ourselves. Text in [BRACKETS] is what you replace.

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Plan a trip with an AI agent: flights, a hotel and a budget

Give an agent your dates, budget and home airport, and it can put together a few complete trip options with flights, a hotel and a total. Here is which agents people use and how to check their work before you book.

ManusChatGPT WorkGensparkMeta Muse
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