United, Booking.com and Amazon Are Blocking AI Travel and Shopping Agents

United Airlines has banned unauthorized AI agents from searching, booking, buying, or managing trips on its platforms, making it the latest — and one of the most travel-relevant — names on a growing list of companies blocking automated bots from transacting on customers' behalf.

The airline announced the restriction on a Wednesday, citing security and regulatory risks plus the possibility of unintended purchases. One example is unusually concrete: an agent checking in for a flyer could breach federal rules requiring a human to confirm their bags contain no banned items such as explosives. That's a compliance argument, not just a traffic-defense play — though United didn't say how much agent activity it had actually detected.

Who else is shutting the door?

At least six other major platforms have rolled out bans or restrictions, citing privacy and security concerns, among others:

• Amazon: Users trying to shop via Meta's Muse saw a popup warning that "continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon's Conditions of Use." Its terms reserve the right to limit agent access "at our sole discretion" — technically blocking bots while keeping an escape hatch for partners it approves.
• Booking.com: Automated assistants can't make bookings or reservations without express permission, and AI assistants can't access the platform at all without prior approval. The company says it will block anyone it suspects of using them.
• eBay: An updated user agreement specifically prohibits "buy-for-me agents," "LLM-driven bots," and any "end-to-end flow that attempts to place orders without human review."
• Target: Its terms ban AI shopping agents unless explicitly authorized — with an approved list that includes "Target's AI Shopping Assistant, OAI, Google and Microsoft." Approved agents can sign in, build carts, place orders, and initiate returns with customer permission, and Target can change the list at any time.
• Resy: The restaurant booking platform supports discovery and booking through ChatGPT and Claude, but can block AI activity outside those services, citing platform security and excessive system demand. Violating users risk account termination.
• Yelp: No non-human traffic without express permission — but it operates a paid data-licensing program that lets approved agents, including ChatGPT users making reservations, access its data.

In short: the bans are rarely absolute. Most companies are blocking unauthorized bots while quietly building toll booths for the ones they choose.

What's behind the crackdown?

The agent boom traces to Meta's release of Muse in September, alongside similar assistants like Instinct, with ChatGPT and Claude adding agentic capabilities too. Companies from retail to travel are now reckoning with bots that browse, buy, and book directly.

The stated reasons are privacy and security. The unstated one matters just as much for sellers: speculation that agents could strip sites of direct traffic if humans stop visiting to browse, buy, or book themselves. Loss of direct traffic means loss of upsell surfaces, remarketing touchpoints, and rate parity control — the revenue plumbing every online seller depends on.

Not everyone is resisting. Walmart, by contrast, is adding AI-agent shopping features even as Amazon blocks bots — a split that suggests the industry hasn't settled on whether agents are threat or channel.

What does this mean for travel sellers?

For distributors, the pattern is clear: platforms want agents as licensed partners, not free-roaming competitors. Booking.com's blanket ban and Resy's ChatGPT-and-Claude whitelist show two flavors of the same strategy — control who mediates the customer relationship, and charge or negotiate for the privilege.

The open question is enforcement. None of these companies disclosed how they detect agent traffic, how much they've seen, or how many accounts have been blocked. The bans are real; the evidence they're working isn't yet on the table.

Expect the approved-agent lists to keep growing — and to become a new negotiating point in distribution deals.