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

Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by schappim on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @07:09PM (#50460955)

I understand why they might be tempted to do this customer hostile action. For our own business, ChatGPT’s sales have grown to be 6.3%[1] of total, but our basket size is smaller compared to other channels.

I think this is because people are purchasing only what they need as recommended by their AI and nothing extra. This is a better outcome for the customer.

OpenAI is really eating Google's lunch hard[2]!

1. http://files.schappi.com/pb-JjWzp83d2O.png

2. http://files.schappi.com/pb-2BtxkLaITY.png

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:United Airlines bans AI agents from booking flights on be... by judge2020 on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @08:04PM (#50461560)

I think it may be worthwhile to not compare basket sizes but maybe revenue over time? Would be interesting to see if the same agents (maybe bound to the same user or same project) now default or bias towards your storefront in the future, or if they always go out and do a search for "best deal".

[ Parent | on HN ]