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

Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by OptionOfT on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @06:18PM (#50460358)
It's interesting. First banks, now airlines.

What are airlines they really afraid of? That people get an advantage by comparing prices?

And for banks, for years US banks have managed to keep data internally, only exposing it through Plaid, and thus getting paid for it. API like the PSD2 in Europe allow me to connect my software to pull in the transactions for free. In the US you have to hand over money to say Monarch.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by kingstnap on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @06:49PM (#50460728)
Airline margins are incredibly thin.

They want a person to go through the checkout flow because people might click on the high margin ad-ons they offer. United has a bunch.

[ Parent | on HN ]