The newly renamed Donald J. Trump International Airport in Palm Beach, Florida, is proving so unpopular with passengers that United Airlines has decided to give reservation agents carte blanche authority to rebook flyers with existing tickets onto flights to nearby airports at no extra cost.
The name change from Palm Beach International Airport to Donald J. Trump Airport officially took effect on July 9, just a few months after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new law that allows the state to name major commercial airports.
Before the airport could be renamed, however, Palm Beach County had to enter into a licensing agreement with the President because he has trademarked his name. The board of commissioners approved the licensing agreement 4-3 in a highly contested vote.
Public backlash to the renaming has been fierce, and many people have openly vowed to boycott the airport.
Given the prevailing mood then, it appears that United Airlines has decided that it will offer existing customers who have booked flights to Palm Beach “unusual flexibility” to avoid the airport, and instead fly to an alternative nearby airport like Fort Lauderdale or Miami.
In an internal memo sent to reservation agents and obtained by Live and Let’s Fly, United tells workers: “If a customer does not want to fly to the airport, use your empowerment to offer acceptable alternatives such as Fort Lauderdale Airport (FLL) or Miami International Airport (MIA).”
Should passengers call United’s reservations line to proactively ask about switching flights to an alternative airport, agents have been instructed to say: “I understand that you’d rather not fly to this airport anymore. We can look at nearby airports like Fort Lauderdale or Miami instead. Is that an acceptable alternative?”
Flight changes will be processed for free, and agents don’t need to obtain permission from a supervisor before rebooking passengers.
United Airlines chief executive Scott Kirby has been regarded as a Trump supporter, aligning himself with the administration, and courting the President in an attempt to win support for a now-abandoned merger with American Airlines.
This rebooking policy is not advertised on United’s website, where the airline normally posts flexible rebooking policies, such as the current rules for passengers looking to avoid flights through the Middle East.
How long this flexibility will remain in force remains to be seen. Presumably, the policy will apply to all existing customers but won’t be extended to customers who booked flights after the name change came into effect.
That being said, United’s online booking tool still doesn’t accurately reflect the name and airport code change. At the time of publication, a dummy booking allowed us to search for flights from PBI, which is now officially known by the airport code DJT.
When you click on any given flight for additional information, the flight is shown as operating from West Palm Beach, FL, US (PBI) and not from Donald J. Trump Airport (DJT).
For those in the know, customers can search for flights to and from DJT via United’s website, with the online booking tool correctly recognizing the airport code, but it then directs users to a results page that shows PBI.
Why does this posting have a picture of what appears to be Heathrow?