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United Blocks AI Agents as Airbnb and OpenAI Build Their Own

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United Blocks AI Agents as Airbnb and OpenAI Build Their Own

United Airlines is blocking unauthorized third-party AI agents from booking its flights, a month after JPMorgan Chase barred outside agents from acting in customer accounts.

Airbnb will begin rolling out its own AI travel agent in the first half of 2027, while OpenAI acquired Odessia, a startup whose agent planned and booked trips.

Seventy percent of consumers are interested in using agentic AI for travel planning, according to PYMNTS Intelligence, though traffic from large language models remains below 1% of room nights at Booking Holdings.

Airlines and travel booking platforms are splitting over whether to allow third-party artificial intelligence (AI) agents to handle reservations or build their own assistants to retain control over customers and transactions.

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United Airlines said Wednesday (Nov. 11) that it is blocking unauthorized third-party AI agents from booking its flights, PYMNTS reported. OpenAI moved the other way a day earlier, when its acquisition of AI travel agent startup Odessia became public. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, meanwhile, said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call last week that Airbnb is building its own AI travel agent.

United is updating its booking, ticketing and distribution policies to keep unauthorized personal AI assistants off its website and app, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (Nov. 11). The restriction also covers agents that reach United through travel agencies and aggregators. United warned that sharing logins with an AI assistant could expose customer data or lead to unintended purchases, reservation changes or redemption of MileagePlus miles.


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