United Airlines is telling its reservation agents that customers who no longer want to fly to Palm Beach because its airport has been renamed for President Trump can switch to Miami or Fort Lauderdale for free.
There’s no published travel waiver. It is an internal customer service instruction obtained by Live and Let’s Fly. Agents are told to use their “empowerment” to offer either Fort Lauderdale or Miami as an alternative and process the change as an “even exchange.” United even gives agents a sympathetic script:
“I understand that you’d rather not fly to this airport anymore.”
Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach are different destinations, and normally changing which one a passenger flies to would require repricing the ticket and collecting any fare difference. United is now willing to absorb that difference when a passenger invokes the name ‘Trump’.
Passengers Are Threatening A Boycott
People promising a broad boycott, but I do not see any evidence that they’re actually undertaking one. Message submitted through the airport’s public contact form during the first five days of the new name show dozens of complaints, and indeed at least a dozen specifically promising to use Miami or Fort Lauderdale in the future instead. One person wrote,
“I will NEVER FLY INTO THERE. NEVER! You have 100% lost all my family’s business.”
In contrast, only a handful of the messages praised the new name. That strikes me as just a reflection that people express complaints far more than satisfaction. Meanwhile, a Change.org petition opposing the rename collected more than 1,300 verified signatures.
Since the change only happened a week ago, it’s too early to look to real booking and travel data to extrapolate an affect on passenger traffic. However, United’s memo was certainly prompted by real concerns.
United Is Playing Both Sides
American Airlines gave agents a script explaining that the government changed the airport’s name and the airline was following the official designation. American even broke its usual gate-display format to show “Pres DJT”.
United is taking a different approach: acknowledge the objection and move the customer somewhere else. Is United pandering to opponents of the President? Sure. But United also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, and CEO Scott Kirby has publicly defended administration policies even when they increase costs for aviation. He’s expressly pandered to the MAGA movement as well, just as he had been woke under Biden. Here, heavily-regulated United chooses to flatter the President in Washington while flattering his opponents on the telephone.
A Cheap Way To Avoid A Political Fight
United serves all three airports, and many passengers traveling to Boca Raton or points south may prefer Fort Lauderdale anyway. For someone actually going to Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale is about 50 miles away and Miami roughly 70 miles away. United will waive the difference in fare, not cover ground transportation.
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