United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights, citing security and federal rules
United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on behalf of travelers
United Airlines will block third-party personal AI agents — like Meta's Muse and OpenAI's dots — from booking flights, checking in, or touching MileagePlus accounts, citing credential exposure and rules requiring travelers to verify luggage in person. The carrier is restricting access both on its own platforms and through travel agencies and aggregators. Analyst Henry Harteveldt says United wants to avoid another powerful intermediary and the cost of AI bot flight searches, while Southwest takes the opposite approach by opening its inventory to ChatGPT users.
United is saying they don't want to add yet another, and potentially even more powerful, intermediary than they already face in terms of Google search, price-comparison metasearch sites and online travel agencies.