United follows Booking.com in banning AI agents from booking
United's contract now lets it cancel tickets bought by AI agents it hasn't authorized, a rule Booking.com has had in its customer terms since September 2025
by Markus Busch
The move. On November 11, United revised its Contract of Carriage. It now defines an AI Agent as any AI assistant, AI agent or AI-enabled browser that books or manages anything United sells, "whether or not Passenger or another individual supervises or approves its actions." That covers assistants built into search and messaging apps, and assistants that reach United through a travel agency's tools. An agent United hasn't authorized can't buy or change a ticket, and United can cancel a booking made against the rule. Bookings made before November 11 stand.
Chief executive Scott Kirby gave the commercial reason at a Chicago event, as The Wall Street Journal reported it: "I don't want to create another middleman." Dara Khosrowshahi, who ran Expedia before he ran Uber, put the same worry this way, as Bloomberg reported: "I used to work in the travel business where we're dependent on the Googles of the world. I don't want to go back there."
Booking.com got there first. Its customer terms, updated September 15, 2025, read: "Booking.com does not authorize the use of automated means or automated assistants (including … AI-powered assistants) to make bookings or reservations … without the prior, express written permission of Booking.com."
The same terms say Booking.com will block anyone using AI assistants to access the site "without express permission." A guest who breaks the terms can have bookings cancelled, and whether she gets a refund depends on the circumstances.
Written permission decides which AI gets in. The key words are "written permission." Booking.com has had its own app inside ChatGPT since October 2025. An AI it has a deal with is allowed in. One it hasn't is in breach. United's rule works the same way: the ban covers unauthorized agents, not agents as such.
Expedia went the other way. Its terms of service carry the usual ban on robots and scrapers and no clause aimed at AI assistants, and it has signed on as a partner of Meta's Muse.
If others follow. United isn't alone. In October, The Verge reported that Delta has no deals letting outside AI agents book its flights, that Amazon has blocked Meta's Muse, and that Yelp lets in only agents that pay for its data.
Add those rules up and the open agent, the one that reads any website and books for its user, has fewer places to go. What remains is an agent that books where it holds a contract. Booking.com has one with OpenAI. Expedia has one with Meta. Delta, by its own account, has none.
For hotels, that changes who an AI booking runs through. On an open web, an agent that found your hotel could book it on your own site. On a web of permissions, it books through whoever signed with the AI company, and for most independent hotels, that is an OTA.
Read also: Why AI agents aren't booking your rooms yet · Why OpenAI bought an AI travel agent
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