Check out this new talking travel-booking app

Aside from a Monsters of Rock tour, few moments inspire more head banging than speaking with an automated voice assistant. In fact, “assistant,” is a generous word when considering the actual results often end in tears, curses, or shards of smashed phones.  However, Siri’s seduction of the mobile world inspired OneTravel, an online booking travel site, to roll out its own digital travel temptress, named Opal.

To meet her, simply download the free app to your Android and iPhone, and follow the usual installation process, unclicking anything that begins, “yes, I’d like to receive…” Once opened, simply press the microphone icon in the upper left corner to speak with Opal.

Here's how my experience went trying to book a flight to Ljubljana, and I did also say from Mars.

“Hi there,” the voice begins without a hint of Scarlett Johansson in Her, “I’m Opal. Tap the microphone at the bottom and let me know what flight to search for.”

Then this happened:

After trying carefully to enunciate very clearly, and searching more pronounceable cities like Rome and New York, the search did work reasonably well. Just have your answers ready in the few seconds to respond, and don't begin until the red light shines on the mic icon. After each question, the app pauses until you are ready with the next step, which is nice. Input the dates, hear the entire package repeated, and say goodbye to Opal (she won't say good-bye to you).

From there interactivity returns to the purely tactile, with usual poking and swiping through a choice of flights as with just about any booking app, leaving me question any real benefit. Pradeep Rao, vice president of products and brands for Fareportal, the parent company of OneTravel, believes Opal makes things easier for travelers by managing and narrowing down choices based on criteria. Customer response offers proof for Rao's pudding, with 59% of app users turning on the microphone, and the vast majority of them following through to the booking page.

For now, Opal appears to be more gimmick than function, but it does work. Should success continue, Opal will undoubtedly take on new skills and abilities, which will hopefully end in a championship cage match with Siri and not the unleashing of terminators.