United Airlines Moves to Block AI Agents From Booking Flights

United Airlines says it will restrict AI agents that try to book flights and manage reservations for users, pointing to cybersecurity risks and concerns about federal regulations.

The carrier is the latest major American company to shut customers' autonomous assistants out of its systems, as airlines and banks struggle to tell real customers apart from AI tools acting on their behalf - a problem that grows when users hand their logins to an assistant.

United warned that sharing account credentials with personal, third-party AI assistants can expose sensitive information, and that actions taken by such tools may lead to unintended purchases, account changes or use of MileagePlus miles. The airline also flagged the risk of violating federal aviation rules, including the requirement that a human complete flight check-ins to confirm bags hold no banned substances.

In a statement, United said it is restricting access both directly on its digital platforms and indirectly through travel agencies and aggregators, and that the work includes updates to its booking, ticketing and distribution policies.

The move follows a warning from banks including Bank of America, which last week urged customers not to share their passwords with AI assistants.