United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights. What’s allowed, and what’s at risk

What United changed on November 11

On November 11, 2026, United Airlines announced that it “is taking steps to restrict access - directly within our digital platforms and indirectly via travel agencies and aggregators - to prohibit use by unauthorized, third-party personal AI agents or assistants.” It added: “This work includes updates to our booking, ticketing and distribution policies.”

The update that binds passengers is in United’s contract of carriage, marked “revised November 11, 2026.” Three rules now mention AI agents:

• Rule 1 defines an “AI Agent.”
• Rule 6 J), the list of prohibited practices that already held hidden-city and throwaway ticketing, adds: “The use of AI Agents to make, modify or service a Ticket, and/or to purchase any service or product.”
• Rule 5 H) adds “reservations made, modified or serviced by AI Agents” to the “types of improper reservations that UA will cancel without notice.”

United also published a page on third-party AI agents in its Digital Trust Center. Asked there whether it works with any third-party AI agents, it answers “Not yet,” and says the page will be updated if that changes.

What counts as an AI agent

Rule 1 casts a wide net: “any software or service, including but not limited to an AI assistant, AI agent or AI-enabled browser that takes autonomous or semi-autonomous action, whether or not Passenger or another individual supervises or approves its actions, to discover, search for, book, purchase, ticket, service or manage any product or service offered by or through United.” It names three kinds:

1. “AI assistants built into social media, messaging, search or other consumer platforms”
2. “AI-enabled browsers and standalone AI agents”
3. “any third-party AI assistant that accesses United through a tool, application or connection provided by a travel agency or other intermediary”

Two things follow. Watching the agent and approving each step doesn’t take it out of the definition. And the rule reaches past united.com: United’s page says “Travel agencies and booking platforms cannot use third-party AI agents” to “book or manage United travel for their customers on either direct or indirect channels.”

United names no product. CBS News gives “Meta’s Muse and OpenAI’s dots” as examples of the agents people use for tasks up to “making purchases.” United’s own test is this: “If a third-party AI agent, bot, browser extension or browser feature searches, books, buys, manages or collects information on united.com or the United app for you, and United hasn’t given permission, it’s unauthorized.”

What you can and can’t do

On United, from November 11	Where it stands	United’s words
Ask an AI for trip ideas and general research	Allowed	“You can still use AI to research and plan trips, as long as the tool doesn’t access united.com or the United app.”
Have an agent search united.com or the app for you	Unauthorized	It “searches, books, buys, manages or collects information on united.com or the United app for you”
Have an agent book or change a ticket	Prohibited	“to make, modify or service a Ticket”
Have an agent buy seats, bags or upgrades	Prohibited	“and/or to purchase any service or product”
Have an agent check you in	United warns against it	It “could result in you missing important safety content”
Give an agent your MileagePlus sign-in	United says not to	“Try to avoid” giving “MileagePlus account numbers, passwords or any sign in information to a third party”
Use assistive technology	Allowed	“Assistive technology for customers with disabilities isn’t affected.”
Use United’s own AI tools	Allowed	“There are AI tools out there to help inspire your next trip, including ones built by us.”

Search is the gray area. The contract’s prohibited practice is about tickets and purchases, and the Wall Street Journal reported, as Newser quotes it, that agents “will still have ways to show customers United’s flight options and prices.” United’s page, though, calls an agent that searches united.com for you unauthorized. The safe reading: let an AI suggest where and when to go, then run the search yourself.

What United can do if an agent books anyway

Bookings from before the change are safe. United’s page says “agent bookings made prior to November 11, 2026 will not be canceled,” and recommends you “review all recent travel plans to ensure they have been booked and ticketed correctly.”

For newer ones, the contract gives United wide latitude. Rule 5 H) lets it cancel the reservation without notice. And because using an agent is now a prohibited practice, Rule 6 K) applies. It lists what United may do, “without notice to the passenger,” when a ticket is “booked, held, purchased and/or used in violation of the law, these rules or any fare rule,” including:

• “Invalidate the Ticket(s)”
• “Cancel any remaining portion of the Passenger’s itinerary”
• “Delete miles, points, credits or any other benefits in or related to the Passenger’s frequent flyer account,” revoke elite status, or end MileagePlus membership
• “Take legal action with respect to the Passenger”

Those remedies aren’t new. They were written for hidden-city ticketing and the like. What’s new is that a booking made by an AI agent now sits in the same list. United hasn’t said it will use any of them against a traveler whose assistant bought a ticket, and its announcement talks about restricting access and mentions no penalties. View from the Wing reports that “United says its systems can identify booking sources,” and points out that a booking an agent completes on a travel agency’s site reaches United as that agency’s booking.

Why United says it’s doing this

The announcement gives three reasons:

• Privacy. In United’s words, “sharing account credentials with personal, third-party, AI assistants can expose sensitive information.”
• Unintended actions. What these tools do “may result in unintended purchases, account changes, or use of MileagePlus miles.”
• Federal rules. United says “these automated AI actions have the potential to violate FAA and DOT regulations - as an example, flight check-in requires human acknowledgment that bags do not contain banned substances like explosives.”

The rule behind that example is 49 CFR 175.25. Where a ticket purchase or check-in “can be completed by a passenger without the involvement of another person,” the airline’s system must ensure the passenger “acknowledges that they have been presented with the information” about forbidden hazardous materials. The rule doesn’t mention software agents, and we found no statement from the FAA or the DOT on whether an agent’s click counts.

There’s a commercial reason too. The Wall Street Journal reported, in The Verge’s account, that United’s CEO, Scott Kirby, said at an event the day before: “To be honest, I don’t want to create another middleman.” The Verge adds that United says it “hasn’t yet seen many people try to use AI agents to book their flights.” Henry Harteveldt of Atmosphere Research Group told CBS News: “Flight searches cost airlines money, and undoubtedly United wants to avoid the expense associated with the surge of AI bot flight searches.”

United points to precedent: “Corporate leaders in the banking and retail industries have taken similar actions regarding AI agents.” Our memo on Bank of America covers the banks. And it leaves a door open. Its page says it wants “standardized, secure technology integrations with privacy, security, authorization and accountability protections in place,” and the announcement says “United will continue to evaluate how these tools interact with our services.”

What other airlines say

Fast Company reported on November 11 that “none of the other major U.S. carriers have similarly banned AI agents—yet,” and that Delta and American both indicated “some AI tools continue to have booking privileges on their systems, though they’re both evaluating the landscape.”

Airline	Where it stands	Source
United	AI agents may not book, change or buy. No agent is authorized yet.	Contract of carriage, revised November 11, 2026
American	A third-party AI tool needs American’s “express written consent.” American “may publish a list of approved Third Party AI Tools.”	Platform terms, effective January 1, 2026
Delta	It says “AI assistants can complete bookings once they’re authenticated,” with extra safeguards for “sensitive transactions.”	Thrifty Traveler’s report
Southwest	A ChatGPT plugin that “allows travelers to discover and shop for Southwest flights in ChatGPT”	Southwest’s release, October 6, 2026

American’s terms are closer to United’s than the headlines suggest. They count as misuse “using unauthorized Third Party AI Tools to make or manage otherwise legitimate bookings or to manage your AAdvantage® account,” and ask you to verify that a tool’s provider “has obtained American’s express written consent.” The terms name no approved tool, and give an email address where approvals “may be requested and verified.”

Thrifty Traveler gives unaccompanied minors’ trips as an example of Delta’s sensitive transactions. Southwest calls its plugin “the first step in a phased AI-powered booking approach” with OpenAI and Amazon Web Services.

What to do

1. Book United yourself. Use AI for ideas if you like, then search and pay on united.com or in the United app. United’s advice for anything an AI tells you is to “review it and search it yourself on united.com or the United mobile app.”
2. Don’t hand an agent a United trip to change, upgrade or check in, even one that asks before each step. Your approval doesn’t change what United’s contract calls it.
3. Check any trip an agent already booked. One booked before November 11 won’t be canceled, United says. For a later one, confirm the reservation still shows in your United account well before you travel.
4. If you gave an agent your MileagePlus sign-in, change the password. United’s words: “we recommend you change your password immediately.” If an agent bought something or spent miles you didn’t intend, United’s page links to its steps to “secure your account.”
5. Keep trip details out of the chat. “Don’t give a third-party AI agent sensitive details like confirmation numbers, MileagePlus details, or any information you wouldn’t want the AI to remember or another person/system to access.”
6. On another airline, read its rule first. American wants its written consent for the tool. Delta and Southwest are more open, for now.

If your agent works in your own browser

United’s test names a “browser extension or browser feature,” which covers agents that drive your own browser, where you’re already signed in. Anthropic’s safety page for Claude in Chrome puts that on you: “You remain responsible for all browser actions taken by Claude performed on your behalf,” including “Purchases or financial transactions” and “Respecting third-party website terms of service, including any restrictions on automated access.”

The same goes for Claude Code. Enjoy turns on Claude’s Chrome connection in every Claude Code conversation, and Claude works in tabs that share your browser’s sign-ins, united.com included if you’re signed in there. Depending on your permission mode, an approval card asks before Claude uses a browser tool, but United’s definition applies whether or not you approve. So don’t ask it to book, change or check in for a United flight, and don’t point a scheduled workflow at united.com to watch a fare: United’s page counts collecting information there as unauthorized.

What hasn’t been said

• How United will tell an agent from a person, and what it does when it finds one. Its announcement says only that it’s “taking steps to restrict access.”
• Whether it will use the contract’s remedies, such as canceling a ticket or deleting miles, against a traveler whose assistant made the booking.
• Which agents it will authorize, and when. Its page says only “Not yet.”
• Whether fare search through an agent is tolerated. The Journal’s report says agents will still show United’s flights and prices; United’s page says an agent that searches united.com is unauthorized.
• What the agents’ makers will do. Neither OpenAI nor Meta is quoted in any of the coverage we read.

We’ll update this memo when United authorizes an agent or says more.