Be warned, United Airlines jet-setters: Boarding passes to sunny Florida are not interchangeable, even if some of those tickets may force certain travelers to leave their political baggage at home.<\/p>\n
United Airlines is pushing back on a recent report that it would allow air passengers to avoid flying into Florida\u2019s recently renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport if they balked at the name change.<\/p>\n
Formerly known as Palm Beach International, the airport in West Palm Beach was rechristened with the new moniker earlier this month.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, airline industry blog Live and Let\u2019s Fly published a report<\/a> relaying United\u2019s purported policy change, citing an internal memo the blog had acquired. The memo, the blog surmised, gave reservation agents the flexibility to accommodate customers who no longer wanted to fly into the South Florida airport.<\/p>\n The memo\u2019s language, according to portions published online by the blog, advised that if a customer \u201cdid not want to fly to the airport\u201d anymore, agents could use their \u201cempowerment to offer acceptable alternatives,\u201d such as Fort Lauderdale Airport or Miami International Airport. The memo, per the blog, then instructed agents to process the change as an even exchange.<\/p>\n However, in a statement to the Tribune on Friday afternoon, United said the \u201cmessage was poorly worded and not accurate.\u201d Live and Let\u2019s Fly did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n The Chicago-based airline amended its statement, saying that \u201cUnited customers are able to make changes to a ticket without a fee for many reasons,\u201d but that destination name alone is not among them.<\/p>\n The West Palm name change took effect just over a week ago. The Trump family regularly uses the airport when they visit Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago home in nearby Palm Beach. A stretch of road from the airport to Trump\u2019s estate was renamed Donald J. Trump Boulevard earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump Force One,\u201d a Boeing owned by the Trump Organization, was the first plane to arrive at the airport under its new name. The president\u2019s son Eric Trump was on board.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no person who has done more for Florida and our country, and no one more deserving of this incredible honor,\u201d Eric Trump posted on X<\/a>. \u201cAs a son, and someone who flies out of this airport nearly every day, I will forever be proud to see the initials \u2018DJT\u2019 on my boarding pass.\u201d<\/p>\n While new signage is already going up, the three-letter airport code will change from PBI to DJT on Aug. 18.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever,\u201d United stated, \u201cour policy doesn\u2019t allow for changes because of an airport\u2019s name or three-letter code.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, always read the fine print.<\/p>\n The Associated Press contributed.<\/p>\n