United Airlines said this week it is restricting unauthorized third-party AI agents and personal assistants from booking flights and managing reservations on its digital platforms and through travel agencies and aggregators^3,4,5.

The carrier said sharing account credentials with those tools can expose sensitive information and lead to unintended purchases, account changes or use of MileagePlus miles^3,5.

United also said agent-run bookings and check-ins could conflict with federal aviation rules, including requirements that a human complete check-in acknowledgments that bags do not contain banned items^3,4,5.

"As a result, United is taking steps to restrict access," the airline said, adding that the work includes updates to booking, ticketing and distribution policies^3,5.

ABC News reported the airline is warning customers who give personal and credit-card information to AI businesses¹. CBS News said the announcement came Wednesday⁵.

Aviation analyst Henry Harteveldt told CBS News that United does not want another powerful intermediary and wants to avoid the cost of a surge of AI bot fare searches⁵.

United CEO Scott Kirby, quoted by Engadget, said, "To be honest, I don't want to create another middleman"⁴.

Other companies have limited agent access as well, including banks such as Bank of America and, Engadget reported, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon^3,4. Southwest Airlines, by contrast, has a ChatGPT plugin for booking, outlets said^4,5.

Harteveldt said United fares should remain bookable on aggregators such as Kayak, Hopper and Google Flights⁵. Independent usage figures for airline-agent bookings were not in the United statement³.