AI agents in travel

Travel is a chain of bookings with many owners: the airline, the hotel, the car rental company, the travel agency or corporate travel manager, and the traveller. When a flight is cancelled, all of them have to change at once, and today the traveller, or a travel agent on the phone, does the stitching. Agents acting for travellers and travel managers could ask airline and hotel agents for options, accept one, and cascade the changes, provided each side can prove whom it represents and what it may spend.

Where agents meet today

Distribution standards

Airlines already distribute offers electronically. IATA describes NDC as a data exchange format based on offer and order management, for airlines to create and distribute offers to customers whatever the distribution channel. Travel agencies and corporate booking tools are among those channels.

NDC is built for offers and orders. Disruption handling, special requests and refunds happen after booking, through airline apps, contact centres and agency service desks.

Disruptions

A cancelled flight is where an agent exchange pays off. The traveller’s agent needs the options, the refund entitlement, and the effect on connecting hotel and car bookings, quickly and in structured form. The airline’s agent can answer all three from its own systems.

A cancellation, step by step

Illustrative:

1. The airline’s agent notifies the traveller’s agent that a flight is cancelled and returns two rebooking options, plus the traveller’s refund entitlement as data.
2. The traveller’s agent checks the options against the traveller’s preferences and, for a business trip, the company’s travel policy.
3. It accepts one option, and the airline’s agent returns the new itinerary.
4. The traveller’s agent asks the hotel’s agent to shift the reservation by a night and the car rental agent to move the pickup.
5. Every change is confirmed in writing and kept, so a later refund or expense claim has a record.

Corporate travel

Corporate travel adds a third party: the employer. A travel management agent books within the company’s policy, such as cabin class, hotel rate caps and preferred suppliers, and has to account for every change. When it talks to an airline or hotel agent, it needs to show both that it acts for the traveller and that the company authorized the spend. A structured exchange can carry the policy limits with the request, so the supplier’s agent returns only options that fit.

Top use cases

Use case	Who talks to whom	Notes
Rebooking during disruptions	Traveller agent and airline agent	Options, refunds, hotel and meal vouchers
Travel management	Corporate travel agent and airline or hotel agents	Policy-compliant bookings, changes and unused tickets
Restaurant reservations	Traveller agent and restaurant agent	Bookings at the destination
Parking, EV charging and tolls	Car or traveller agent and operator agents	Ground transport at each end
Group coordination	Several travellers’ agents	Shared itineraries and changes

Regulatory considerations

US airline passenger rules have changed several times since 2024, and Canada’s are under review. Checked on 26 September 2026 against the Federal Register, Justice Laws and the Canada Gazette. This is not legal advice.

United States (Department of Transportation and FTC)

• Automatic refunds. DOT’s final rule of 26 April 2024 requires automatic refunds when a carrier cancels or significantly changes a flight to, from or within the US and the consumer is not offered, or rejects, alternative transportation or travel credits. Refunds are due within 7 business days for card payments and 20 calendar days for other payments. Carriers and ticket agents must tell consumers about their right to a refund before offering alternatives. An airline agent that answers a traveller’s agent with rebooking options is making that kind of offer.
• Renumbered flights, enforcement paused. On 5 December 2025 DOT said it would not enforce the refund rule when a flight is only renumbered and operates without a significant change or delay. On 7 July 2026 it extended that pause to 7 July 2027 while it works on a rulemaking to redefine a cancelled flight.
• Ancillary fee disclosure, reverted. After the Fifth Circuit vacated DOT’s 2024 ancillary fee rule, DOT issued a final rule effective 2 July 2026 restoring the disclosure standards from its 2011 rule.
• Delay compensation, withdrawn. DOT withdrew its December 2024 advance notice on requiring cash compensation and amenities for significant disruptions, effective 17 November 2025.
• Lodging prices (FTC). The FTC’s Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, effective 12 May 2025, requires short-term lodging and live-event ticket sellers to show the total price clearly and prominently whenever they display a price.

Canada (Canadian Transportation Agency and provinces)

• Air Passenger Protection Regulations. The CTA’s regulations set carriers’ obligations for delays, cancellations and denied boarding. Justice Laws shows them current to 3 September 2026 and last amended on 8 September 2022.
• Amendments proposed, not yet final. Draft amendments pre-published in the Canada Gazette on 21 December 2024 would, among other things, cut the refund deadline from 30 days to 15, require carriers to publish their claims process, and require a detailed explanation, with evidence, within 30 days when they refuse compensation because of exceptional circumstances. The regulations had not been amended when checked.
• Travel sellers (provincial). Travel agents are regulated provincially. In Ontario, the Travel Industry Council of Ontario administers the Travel Industry Act, 2002 and Ontario Regulation 26/05, registers travel retailers and wholesalers, and runs an industry-funded compensation program.

Traveller data is personal information. Bill C-36, introduced on 15 June 2026 to replace Part 1 of PIPEDA, is at second reading in the House of Commons.

Where to start

1. Start with flight status and options. A read-only question about a booking reference is the safest first task, and it is the first thing every disruption conversation needs.
2. Put entitlements in the answer. Where refund rights apply, return them as structured data alongside the rebooking options, so the traveller’s agent can present both.
3. Carry policy and limits with the request. A corporate travel agent should state the traveller’s fare and hotel limits, and the airline or hotel agent should be able to check that the agent is authorized to spend within them.
4. Plan for waiting. Rebooking can take several turns. Multi-turn tasks shows how a task pauses for input without losing context.
5. Keep people for assistance needs. Travellers who need mobility assistance, unaccompanied minors and medical situations need a person with the full exchange attached.