Flight Bookings: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

AirHelp leads the category in valid recommendation coverage for October 2026 at 2.3%, unchanged from its September 2026 reading of 2.3% and up from its July 2026 baseline of 1.9%. AirHelp's 2.3% coverage is based on one valid recommendation within 43 qualified observations; every other tracked brand recorded 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, so the gap to the next brand is 2.3 points. No tracked brand registered a significant increase or decline in valid recommendation coverage this month. The movement from September 2026 to October 2026 was quiet: all seven tracked brands are classified as stable, and no change was large enough to fall outside normal month-to-month variation. The largest single-month coverage moves within the series were AirHelp's 2.3-point gain between August 2026 and September 2026 (from 0.0% to 2.3%) and Flightright's 2.3-point decline between September 2026 and October 2026 (from 2.3% to 0.0%).

AirHelp's raw presence rate rose from 40.2% in July 2026 to 86.1% in October 2026, up 45.9 points across the series. AirAdvisor's raw presence rate moved in the opposite direction, down from 57.9% in July 2026 to 23.3% in October 2026, a decline of 34.6 points. Skycop's raw presence rate fell from 3.7% in July 2026 to 0.0% in October 2026, down 3.7 points, leaving it with no measured presence in the current month.

The benchmark began with 228 prompt-surface observations in October 2026, producing 43 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth measures how many of the six canonical AI/search surface families (ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode) produced at least one qualified observation. All six families were represented in both months. The two intermediate months, August 2026 and September 2026, recorded 55 and 44 qualified observations respectively.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Flight Bookings

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• What is the difference between source prompt-surface observations and qualified benchmark observations?
• What does the public benchmark denominator actually include across the measured months?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which flight compensation brands lead on valid recommendation coverage in October 2026?
• How do presence rate, valid recommendation coverage, and placement metrics differ across the tracked brands?

This table is the primary current-month benchmark view for October 2026.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: The share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned, regardless of whether the mention is a recommendation.
• Valid recommendation coverage: The share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation, the primary metric of the benchmark.
• Top-three rate: The share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the first three recommended positions.
• Rank-one rate: The share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: The balance of positive over negative mentions (positive share minus negative share), ranging from -1.0 to 1.0.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• How has valid recommendation coverage moved for each tracked flight compensation brand since the July 2026 baseline?
• Why was October 2026 classified as a quiet month for recommendation coverage?

This was a quiet month for recommendation coverage. No brand moved beyond normal month-to-month variation, and no brand was classified as a significant riser or decliner. AirHelp's only movement in the metric came between July 2026 and August 2026, when it fell from 1.9% to 0.0% before returning to 2.3% in September 2026 and holding there in October 2026. Flightright recorded valid recommendation coverage of 1.8% in August 2026 and 2.3% in September 2026 before returning to 0.0% in October 2026, a 2.3-point decline from September 2026 that falls within normal variation on a small base.

Category Leader: AirHelp

AirHelp leads the category with 2.3% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, unchanged from September 2026 and up from its 1.9% baseline in July 2026. This rests on one valid recommendation within 43 qualified observations. AirHelp's raw presence rate climbed from 40.2% in July 2026 to 86.1% in October 2026, and its net sentiment finished at 0.1 in October 2026, matching its July 2026 reading. No other tracked brand recorded valid recommendation coverage in October 2026.

Skycop

Skycop recorded 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, unchanged from its 0.0% baseline in July 2026. Over the same period, Skycop's raw presence rate fell from 3.7% to 0.0%, a decline of 3.7 points that leaves it with no measured presence in the current month. Skycop also stands at 0.0% on top-three rate, 0.0% on rank-one rate, and a net sentiment of 0.0 in October 2026.

AirHelp records 2.3% on valid recommendation coverage, while Skycop stands at 0.0%. The more important issue is what that gap means for Skycop's recommendation position: AirHelp is currently the only tracked brand registering any valid recommendation coverage in the category, and Skycop's own presence has fallen to zero in the same month, meaning Skycop is absent from both the presence layer and the recommendation layer of the benchmark simultaneously. This is a measurable competitive gap on the metric the benchmark treats as primary, and it has not closed across the four months in the series.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Why has Skycop's raw presence rate fallen from 3.7% to 0.0% across the measurement period, and what needs to change before Skycop can register any measured presence, let alone valid recommendation coverage, in a category where AirHelp already holds both?

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Did any flight compensation brand achieve a top-three or rank-one placement in October 2026?
• What does the absence of first-position appearances say about how AirHelp's coverage was placed?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Placement rates reveal where a brand appears in the recommendation order, not just whether it appears at all.

No tracked brand recorded a top-three or rank-one placement in October 2026, so AirHelp's coverage was not converted into a first-position appearance this month. Similar coverage levels can still hide different first-position rates, and in this month no tracked brand achieved either placement.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• What buyer-intent classes made up the qualified observations in October 2026?
• Which buyer-intent classes are not yet represented in the public series?

All qualified observations in October 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class, which covers discovery and consideration of a named compensation service.

The current public series measures brand-recommendation discovery only. It does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Each observation carries the full context needed to understand how a brand surfaced in an AI response. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or sales attribution
• Every possible AI response a brand might appear in
• Organic-search ranking performance
• Social media mention volume
• Private or sponsored channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are cited most often across AI platform responses in this measurement period?
• How concentrated are citations across the top domains and the full set of unique domains?

Across all AI platform responses in this measurement period, the benchmark recorded 1,160 citations drawn from 362 unique domains.

Citations are distributed rather than concentrated: the top 10 domains together account for roughly a third of all cited links, and 362 unique domains appear across the full set. Two tracked brands' own domains appear in the top 10, with airhelp.com ranking first and airadvisor.com ranking second; a third brand-owned variant, airhelp.co.uk, also appears at rank 10. The remaining entries skew toward review and ratings sources such as airlineratings.com and skytraxratings.com, general reference and community platforms including Wikipedia, Reddit, Facebook, and YouTube, and Google's own properties.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how brands appear in AI-generated answers across the major AI and search surfaces. This neutral, industry-level benchmark measures presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment to show how the AI information environment treats each tracked brand.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

Get a Company-Level Authority Index

The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper.

Get my free AI Company Index