American airline United Airlines has restricted autonomous AI agents from buying and booking tickets on its flights due to security risks, infohub.kz reports.
The new sales rules will affect both the carrier's official website and third-party travel agencies and aggregators. The company fears that transferring payment data and login credentials to AI agents—programs capable of independently performing tasks online on behalf of users—could lead to personal information leaks, accidental purchases, or unauthorized spending of MileagePlus loyalty program miles.
The ban is also tied to requirements from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Under the agencies' rules, certain actions during flight booking must be confirmed by a human—for example, at check-in, passengers must personally declare that their baggage contains no explosives.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby explained that the company does not want to create another intermediary in customer communications. Amazon and JPMorgan Chase have previously taken a similar stance. However, competitor Southwest has instead released a plugin for buying tickets through ChatGPT.
Still, the popularity of such purchases remains low: Uber reported that during the week around Halloween, out of 320 million rides and deliveries, only 500 food orders and four taxi calls were made via AI agents.