{"slug": "united-wont-let-your-ai-agent-book-your-flight", "title": "United won’t let your AI agent book your flight", "summary": "United Airlines will not allow third-party personal AI agents to complete flight bookings on united.com, citing privacy risks, unintended purchases and federal rules requiring passengers to attest that their bags contain no explosives, The Wall Street Journal reported. United CEO Scott Kirby said at an event on Tuesday, \"To be honest, I don't want to create another middleman,\" while the airline said it could reconsider as agents advance. The policy follows similar restrictions from eBay, which appeared to block agents from browsing its site, and several major banks, and could limit the usefulness of assistants such as Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots.", "body_md": "United says it [won’t let personal AI assistants book tickets](https://go.skimresources.com/?id=87443X1797501&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.united.com%2Fen%2Fus%2Ffly%2Fhelp-center%2Fdigital-trust-center%2Fartificial-intelligence%2Fthird-party-ai-agents.html) on the airline, citing both privacy and regulatory concerns.\n\n# United won’t let your AI agent book your flight\n\nAI agents can’t attest that you don’t have explosives in your bags.\n\nThe company says it hasn’t yet seen many people try to use AI agents to book their flights, [*The Wall Street Journal* reports](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/united-airlines-is-banning-ai-bots-from-booking-flights-5b514b38), in line with observations from other businesses like [Doordash](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/30/doordash-said-its-only-received-several-hundred-orders-from-ai-agents/). But United is concerned that agents could expose customers’ information or make purchases they didn’t intend, and potentially skirt federal rules about the kind of information airlines need to share with customers — like having them attest that their bags don’t have explosives.\n\nWhile agents can still show users United flights, they won’t be able to actually complete the transaction on their behalf. The decision, and others like it, could limit the potential usefulness of newer personal AI assistants like [Meta’s Muse](https://www.theverge.com/tech/993391/meta-muse-ai-hands-on) and [OpenAI’s Dots](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1002033/openai-dots-launch-muse-competitor). “To be honest, I don’t want to create another middleman,” United CEO Scott Kirby said at an event on Tuesday, according to *the Journal*.\n\nAcross sectors, businesses are grappling with whether to let AI agents transact on their sites, and United is not alone in blocking access for unauthorized agents. eBay [appeared to block agents](https://www.theverge.com/tech/1030838/ebay-ai-agents-meta-muse-agentic-shopping) from browsing the site, and [several major banks](https://www.theverge.com/tech/1016768/ai-agents-are-causing-massive-headaches-for-banks) have also placed restrictions on them. United suggests it could reconsider its decision based on future advancements. “As third-party AI agents advance, we see the opportunities they present. However, at the same time, allowing them to interact directly with a United account or booking could involve sensitive actions, and we want to make sure we have established protections for travelers first.”\n\n**Follow topics and authors** from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/united-wont-let-your-ai-agent-book-your-flight", "canonical_source": "https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1031623/united-unauthorized-ai-agents", "published_at": "2026-11-11 21:54:21+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-11-11 22:23:31.955526+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-products", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["United Airlines", "Scott Kirby", "The Wall Street Journal", "eBay", "Meta", "Muse", "OpenAI", "Dots"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/united-wont-let-your-ai-agent-book-your-flight", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/united-wont-let-your-ai-agent-book-your-flight.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/united-wont-let-your-ai-agent-book-your-flight.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/united-wont-let-your-ai-agent-book-your-flight.jsonld"}}