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

Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by qeternity on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @05:24PM (#50459601)

It's not. Airlines do not make their money price discriminating economy customers over the same route at the same time.

Dynamic pricing is mostly a seasonal and timing game. And the actual money is made in higher classes of service.

This idea that Bob and Alice are shown drastically different pricing for the same seat because of insights into their specific purchasing behavior is just ludicrous.

Most people buy tickets from aggregators who have been already gutted the ability to do this anyway.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by ProblemExplorer on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @05:43PM (#50459891)

> This idea that Bob and Alice are shown drastically different pricing for the same seat because of insights into their specific purchasing behavior is just ludicrous.

You basically argued literally the entire thesis for customer segmentation and behavior based pricing and then called it ludicrous. I hope PhDs and statisticians who make living building these very models don't see this comment and begin to question their entire existence.

[ Parent | on HN ]