United Requires Permission For AI Agents, Keeps Search Indexing Open via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern
United Airlines’ website terms, updated Nov. 11, allow search engines to index its public pages. However, any AI agent that searches, books, or makes purchases on united.com or in its app needs written permission. The terms also bar anyone from using fares, schedules, availability, pricing or other data from United’s site or app to “train, fine-tune, ground, evaluate, or otherwise develop” an AI model.
The changes came with United’s announcement that it is restricting unauthorized third-party AI agents on its own platforms and through travel agencies and booking sites. The airline updated its contract of carriage (the passenger agreement that comes with buying a ticket) on the same day.
For those on SEO and ecommerce teams who have created their own rules for AI agents, the airline’s rules are an example of what a big company has done. The rules for the AI agents can be found in both the terms and conditions and the contract. As of Nov. 14, United’s robots.txt file named no crawlers or agents for any AI.
The announcement from United says that sharing account login credentials with an outside third-party AI assistant can expose customers’ sensitive information. Furthermore, according to the announcement, there are potential risks of “unintended purchases, account changes, or use of MileagePlus miles.” In addition to these risks, automated actions by the AI assistant may violate Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations. United points to check-in as an example, saying…
United’s FAQ on its Digital Trust Center calls any AI agent, bot, browser extension or browser feature unauthorized if it searches, books, buys, manages or collects information on united.com or the United app without United’s permission. Using AI to research and plan a trip is allowed as long as the tool doesn’t access united.com or the app.
United doesn’t work with any third-party AI agents yet, according to the FAQ, and bookings that agents made before Nov. 11 won’t be canceled.
- What United Announced
- What United’s Website Terms Allow And Bar
- The Contract Reaches Travel Agencies
- Why This Matters
- Looking Ahead
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