JetBlue president says airlines should follow customers' lead on AI booking agents

JetBlue President Marty St. George said at the Skift Commerce Summit in New York on Wednesday that airlines should adapt if customers embrace AI booking tools, even though he fears the companies behind them will eventually want paying. His comments came on the same day United Airlines said it would restrict AI bots' access to its digital platforms, citing data security.

One clarification: this isn't a deal. As far as I can tell from the Reuters report, JetBlue hasn't announced a partnership or a policy. It's a stance from an executive, and a fairly candid one.

Who pays if bots start taking a cut

St. George's worry is cost. He fears intermediaries could eventually seek compensation for directing bookings, creating a new cost for airlines. He said the AI industry is likely to attract "a trillion dollars of capital" and that someone will have to cover it.

The airline's finances explain the nerves. JetBlue has about $8.4 billion in debt and finance lease obligations and hasn't posted an annual profit since 2019. Of the prospect of a new fee, he said: "unprofitable company, unprofitable industry, that's intimidating."

He also compared AI agents with online travel agencies. He described those as a distribution channel that costs airlines money and isn't always beneficial, unlike jetblue.com. JetBlue prefers direct customer relationships because they let it market the full range of its products.

United went the other way

United's move is the sharper contrast. It said it would restrict access both directly and indirectly through travel agencies and aggregators, including updates to its booking, ticketing and distribution policies. Its stated concern is that customers who share account credentials with third-party AI assistants could expose sensitive information and risk unintended purchases, account changes or unauthorized use of frequent-flyer miles.

United also pointed to regulation. It argued that automated AI actions could violate FAA and DOT rules, since flight check-in requires human acknowledgment that bags don't contain banned substances. That detail is in PhocusWire's report.

Sources disagree on where United sits among airlines. Forbes calls it the first major US airline to reject working with third-party AI travel planners. Paddle Your Own Kanoo calls it the second known U.S. carrier to start blocking AI agents and says Delta is understood to be doing the same. PhocusWire, for its part, only reports that Delta told TechCrunch last month it would need to be mindful of "security and the customer experience" if it opened up to agents. I wouldn't treat the "first" label as settled.

The stakes for airlines and AI companies

The wider picture is mixed. Per Reuters, Amazon has blocked Meta's AI agent Muse, while Walmart has partnered with it. Forbes notes that Expedia, Booking and TripAdvisor have been working with OpenAI since last year. So the middlemen are already in, and airlines are deciding whether to follow.

St. George's answer is more pragmatic than United's. He said that if customers think AI is a better way to book, airlines need to "meet them where they are." I think that's the realistic read: if travelers really do start booking through chatbots, blocking them could cost an airline sales.

Still, his fee worry is probably the more important half of the story. Airlines already pay distribution costs to travel agencies, and a new toll from AI intermediaries would land on carriers with thin margins. Honestly, I'd expect airlines to bargain hard over who owns the customer relationship before any agent gets deep access.

What happens next

United still has to publish its updated booking, ticketing and distribution policies. JetBlue hasn't said whether it will open its booking systems to AI agents, and the reporting I found doesn't say. Watch for Delta and the other big carriers: if more of them follow United, JetBlue's "follow the customer" line could end up as the outlier.