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

Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by dwattttt on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @05:40PM (#50459840)

> If this is indeed the case -- good riddance to that practice! Why should I be sorry that it goes?

The effort you (and others) are willing to go to get the $50 doesn't seem to match up with the "fine, the practice should go". If it doesn't matter, why expend effort to do it?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by kjanus03 on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @06:09PM (#50460267)

Because while the $50 deal exists then everyone has the right to fight for it (I would even argue that it's rational!). I don’t see how that’s incompatible with wishing the $50 deal didn’t exist in the first place. Pricing that rewards whoever spends the most time searching is a bad system, and agents are a fair fix because they make that local price ooptima findable for everyone.

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Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by srdjanr on Thursday November 12, 2026 @04:51AM (#50465103)

I think pricing that rewards searching is actually very fair and good. You give customers choice between money and effort - rich people will book the first flight and pay more, subsidized poorer people.

If agents make finding cheaper tickets trivial and the default, customers lose that choice.

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Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by BobaFloutist on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @07:42PM (#50461311)

Because they don't offer the remaining seats for $250, they offer them for $600.

[ Parent | on HN ]