Spotnana automates airline credit name changes
Spotnana announced new capabilities that automate the lifecycle of unused airline ticket credits, letting travel managers move eligible credits assigned to one traveler into a shared company pool for other employees to redeem. The platform now automates name changes for both NDC and EDIFACT credits, replacing a manual, error-prone process, and other travelers can redeem pooled credits through Spotnana’s self-service booking flow without agent help. For most airlines a task is still created in Agent Desktop to finish the name change, but United Airlines NDC credits are fully automated end to end, which United says makes Spotnana the first platform to do so. Spotnana says 96% of unused credits are already redeemed before expiration and aims to push that closer to 100%, with rule-based automated transfers planned for a future release.
DERTOUR Group partners with travel compositor to boost tailor-made travel
DERTOUR Group has launched a collaboration with Travel Compositor, a Travelsoft company, to make complex, modular and individually configured trips easier to create and book across its markets, supporting its “Home of Holidays” ambition of offering the right trip for almost every holiday wish. The platform lets travel experts combine flights, accommodation, transfers, activities, trains, rental cars, cruises and tours in a single itinerary with real-time bookability. It is currently being piloted in DERTOUR-owned agencies in Germany, where first live bookings have already been made, and selected round trips are being tested on the DERTOUR website. Insights from these pilots will guide a broader roll-out in Germany, Switzerland and other markets, in line with the group’s “Tech & Touch” approach of pairing technology with personal expertise.
Most AI-agent travel bookings would route through intermediaries
Propellic’s new study of Meta’s Muse and Instinct AI agents found that bookings initiated through them often don’t go directly to the travel provider. In 57% of flight booking audit runs, the booking would have been handled by Duffel, the booking API behind both agents, even when travelers named a specific airline. Airlines, hotels or tour operators received the booking directly in 28% of cases, and platforms such as Booking.com and Expedia accounted for 14%. Outcomes varied with the request: every hotel request asking to book direct, and every request naming a specific brand, ended with that provider, while “cheapest option” requests led the agents to pick the lowest displayed price in 88% of runs. Propellic’s CEO Brennen Bliss said the agents have swung the pendulum back toward the traditional travel supply chain, adding a new layer in the middle.
Travelers also remain hesitant to let AI handle payment. In the survey, 66% of real conversations stopped at the research or shortlist stage, and when an agent reached the approval step, about half of users stepped in to check details like seats, baggage or cancellation terms before completing the booking themselves. Asked about a real trip, 36% of interviewees said they would let an AI agent pay, and another 36% would do so under conditions such as a refundable booking or a low-value purchase. The research combined scripted booking requests across four routes, a user survey and recorded interviews with a live booking task, and the full report details 26 findings in total.
dailypoint and Hapi partner to focus on hotel tech
dailypoint, a central CRM and loyalty data platform for hospitality, has partnered with Hapi, a hospitality data infrastructure provider, to expand its connectivity to hotel technology systems and speed up customer deployments. Rather than building and maintaining each integration independently, which is costly and slows rollouts as hotel systems evolve, dailypoint will use Hapi as a centralized integration layer alongside its existing connections. Through Hapi Connectivity and its certified SevenRooms integration, dailypoint can access real-time guest data from additional hotel systems, with potential to extend to POS, spa, and sales and catering platforms. The arrangement frees dailypoint’s engineering team to focus on developing new product capabilities, which CEO Michael Toedt says will help hotels bring guest data online faster and make better use of it, while Hapi CEO Jeff Bzdawka says it shows providers can build on connectivity instead of repeatedly rebuilding it.
United Airlines blocks AI agents from booking glights
United Airlines is prohibiting personal agentic AI assistants, such as Instinct and Meta’s Muse, from booking its flights through both direct and indirect channels, citing data security and safety concerns. The airline warns that sharing account credentials with AI tools could expose sensitive information and lead to unintended purchases, account changes or use of loyalty points, and says automated actions could violate FAA and DOT rules, noting that check-in requires human acknowledgment that bags contain no banned substances. The restrictions are meant to target only unauthorised agents, though United has yet to reach any authorisation agreements, so the ban may not stay blanket for long. Bookings made by an AI agent on a customer’s behalf before 11 November 2026 will be honoured, and United encouraged other companies to take similar measures, pointing to banking and retail leaders that already have.
