United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on behalf of travelers

Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by bagacrap on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @05:05PM (#50459336)

This is true of a whole lot of stuff. Many special offers are loss leaders that largely rely on human behavior to make up for the losses, like a credit card that gives you $500 cash back if you spend $2500 in the first 3 months. This only works when a fair number of the humans stick with that card long term, if there are agents running around creditmaxxing then the offers don't work any more.

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Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by abirch on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @05:12PM (#50459442)

Many moats are plain inertia. Chase and other big banks bet that you won't switch to a different bank that actually pays interest.

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Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by ctoth on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @05:27PM (#50459645)

> This is true of a whole lot of stuff. Many special offers are loss leaders that largely rely on human behavior to make up for the losses

Accepting this is currently true, should we prefer this equilibrium?

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Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by bagacrap on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @06:49PM (#50460724)

This feels like a loaded question.

If you are an inveterate optimizer, it works to your advantage. If you are not, well I guess you just don't care. So net net, yes we prefer this equilibrium.

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Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by BobaFloutist on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @07:44PM (#50461334)

You're forgetting about the third class of person, who thinks it's not worth their time, and, frankly, distasteful to spend that much time and effort optimizing, but also finds the offers presented to those that aren't optimizing insultingly poor value.

That's the kind of person that will not download the app to get the coupons and hunt for the good deals at Safeway, but will also not accept the exceptionally high sticker price, and instead will go shop at another store.

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Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by bagacrap on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @09:29PM (#50462321)

> it's not worth their time

is the same as

> just don't care

No one with an ounce of respect for their body shops at Safeway regardless of the price.

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Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by TeMPOraL on Thursday November 12, 2026 @04:26AM (#50464935)

I think there's a fourth class (to the third class another commenter mentions) that you're missing here, which the credit card example makes obvious: people who fall for the "human behavior" trick the company aims for, and are exploited or hurt by those practices.

Credit card case: people prone to overspending and falling in a debt loop, lured in by $500 due to being poor or in precarious situation (perhaps from falling in similar traps in the past), and who end up keeping the card long-term, as the 3-months spending requirement ends up trapping them in the CC spending loop.

This equilibrium you describe, is in many cases built on preying on the weakest and most vulnerable, so no, I don't think it's fine.

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Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by AbsurdCensor on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @05:30PM (#50459694)

Perfect, if the business model is to scam you out of money because you don't use a service, then it should go away, regardless of the few people getting 'benefit'.

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Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by jeremyjh on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @05:38PM (#50459812)

What is the scam here?

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Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by pixl97 on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @05:59PM (#50460100)

Loss leaders.

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