United Airlines prevents unauthorized AI agents from booking travel – Unite.AI

United Airlines announced on November 11, 2026 that it will prevent unauthorized third-party AI agents from booking, servicing or purchasing travel through its digital platforms and indirect distribution channels. The airline cited privacy and account security risks, inadvertent transactions, and potential conflicts with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and U.S. Department of Transportation requirements.

United says sharing account credentials with AI-powered personal assistants can expose sensitive information, while agents’ actions can produce inadvertent purchases, account changes, or use of MileagePlus frequent flyer miles.

The US aviation example is check-in, where a person must acknowledge that bags do not contain banned substances such as explosives. The airline says automated actions can potentially violate FAA and DOT regulations, while automated check-in could cause travelers to miss important security content.

The policy separates customer authorization from airline authorization. A traveler can authorize an assistant without United being required to allow them to make transactions, and United’s customer guide says the airline does not yet work with third-party AI agents.

What travelers can still do

AI-assisted search and planning remain permitted when the tools use general information and do not access United.com or the United app. United advises customers not to provide credentials, confirmation numbers, MileagePlus details or other sensitive information. Customers can review the AI-generated text and independently perform the resulting searches on United’s website or app.

Reservations made by third party agents before November 11, 2026 will not be cancelled. United’s guidelines recommend reviewing recent travel plans to confirm successful booking and ticketing, changing passwords immediately after sharing your MileagePlus login details, and protecting accounts after suspected unauthorized access or purchases.

Scope and execution of the contract

The Contract of Carriage, revised November 11, 2026, defines an AI agent as software or a service that takes autonomous or semi-autonomous actions, including when a passenger or another person supervises or approves its actions. The definition covers discovering, researching, booking, purchasing, ticketing, servicing and managing products offered by or through United, including flights, seats, upgrades, ancillary products and partner products.

This scope includes assistants integrated into social media, messaging, search and other consumer platforms, AI-enabled browsers, autonomous agents and third-party assistants who reach United through connections provided by travel agents or other intermediaries. The contract prohibits AI agents from making, modifying or reviewing tickets and purchasing services or products. It also lists reservations made, changed, or managed by AI agents as reservations that United may cancel without notice.

For tickets involved in violations, available remedies extend beyond cancellation: United reserves rights, including invalidating tickets, canceling remaining itinerary segments, eliminating MileagePlus miles or other benefits, revoking elite status, terminating program membership, and taking legal action.

United’s updated website terms require prior written authorization for automated agent access to United.com or the mobile app and allow the airline to block or restrict such agents. They also prohibit the use of rates, hours, availability, prices, or other data from sites and apps to train, tune, tune, evaluate, or otherwise develop any artificial intelligence or machine learning model or system.

Conditions for approved additions

The Website Terms exempt assistive technologies for disabled people, standard browsers operated by a person but not their automated agent capabilities, limited tools that transform only a person’s voice or text into a search performed and reviewed by the person, search indexing of public pages, and tools operated by or for United. Travel agencies and booking platforms may not use third-party AI agents to search, book, or manage United travel on direct or indirect channels; Agency third-party AI tools require United’s permission.

United says it wants standardized, secure technology integrations with privacy, security, authorization and liability protections before allowing agents to interact directly with accounts or reservations. This makes approved integrations, rather than customer-shared credentials, the gateway to AI-managed travel across its channels, preserving a path to automated booking under airline-defined controls.