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by Harrison Pierce Harrison is a full-time digital nomad and award travel writer who's visited or lived in more than 35 countries on six continents. He travels everywhere with his cat, Isabelle, and when he isn't traveling, he's cooking, reading, or learning Spanish.

Hi, Reader. I’m generally a “fly by the seat of your pants” type of traveler. While I meticulously plan my digital nomad lifestyle, I love to book spontaneous weekend getaways without much forethought. However, this is where AI can actually be really helpful.

I can quickly throw together a weekend trip, and ask AI to identify weak points, flag potential disruptions, and suggest safer alternatives or buffers. This takes much of the major research out of my hands and helps me quickly identify problems that might need to be solved before they arise.

Here’s exactly how you can stress-test your upcoming trip.

The prompt for your favorite AI tool

Here’s an easy prompt that you can give to your favorite AI tool:

How I stress-tested an upcoming vacation

I’m currently living in Medellín, Colombia, and I’m eager to go to a beach since the Caribbean is easily within reach. I was planning a summer trip to Aruba, so I gave Claude my flight details, hotel information, and the kind of experience I want. I was stress-testing the trip before booking anything, so it would be easy to modify anything Claude found that required immediate attention.

Based on the information provided, Claude identified 12 potential issues, grouped into high-, medium-, and low-risk categories.

High risk:

• Only 3 seats left on outbound
• Only 1 seat left on return
• 04:50 departure requires arriving the night before
• Risk-free cancellation deadline on my target hotel rate already passed

Medium risk:

• Both flights connect through BOG — single point of failure
• LifeMiles taxes add ~COP 621,497 in cash — verify your card can pay
• $300 hotel credit eligibility — confirm it applies here
• $241.75 in "extra charges" is unexplained
• July is peak hurricane season — weather window
• ATV in Arikok National Park — requires planning

Low risk:

• Snorkeling booked through Viator — verify operator quality
• No health/travel insurance mentioned
• Entry requirements — confirm Colombian passport/visa status

For each item, Claude provided details about the problem and potential methods to fix it:

HIGH — Only 3 seats left on outbound (MDE→AUA)​
Flight AV 9653 departs at 04:50 with just 3 remaining award seats. If you delay booking, you may lose availability — and award space on LifeMiles can disappear without notice, especially as the departure date approaches.
➤ Book today. Do not wait. Award space is not guaranteed to hold.

HIGH — Only 1 seat left on return (AUA→MDE)​
Flight AV 233 departs at 17:20 and shows only 1 award seat remaining. This is the most urgent booking risk — this seat could vanish within hours. You are traveling with (presumably) at least yourself, and possibly a companion.
➤ Confirm passenger count immediately. If traveling with anyone else, this return itinerary may already be impossible. Have a backup return flight identified (even a cash fare).

How to evaluate the results

The quality of the stress test will depend on the information you provide. You should have a solid outline of your trip to get the most specific feedback. Share specific flight numbers, hotel names, dates, how you plan on booking everything, what credit card benefits (if any) you plan on using, and experiences you want to have.

Even so, you need to evaluate the results carefully, as they will be a mixed bag. For instance, Claude ran a live search and found that there are only three remaining award seats on my outbound flight and one on my return flight. This is a major issue that I wasn’t aware of, as I’m traveling with a friend. This makes the stress test immediately useful, as I now know I need to find a new flight.

However, it also identified a 4:50 a.m. departure and layovers in Bogotá as risky. I don’t mind going to the airport in the middle of the night, and virtually every international trip from Medellín transits through Bogotá, so I’d disagree with that assessment.

Other items, like whether I can pay award ticket taxes and fees with a foreign card, aren’t relevant. I’m using my Chase Sapphire Reserve, so there’s no trouble booking an award flight and paying the taxes and fees in Colombian pesos.

Overall, the assessment took a couple of minutes, and I was able to identify a problem I can quickly solve. This is an easy way to make sure your next trip goes as smoothly as possible.