The Unavoidable Reality of President Donald J. Trump International Airport

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Are you upset that your relaxing trip to Palm Beach, Florida, will now involve repeatedly hearing the name “President Donald J. Trump International Airport”?

United Airlines gets it. Or maybe the airline did. But now you’re just going to have to either suck it up or pay a lot of money to change your travel plans.

Palm Beach International Airport was officially renamed on July 9. Initially, United Airlines seemed to understand that a lot of Americans don’t want to participate in Donald Trump’s quest to give himself every honor imaginable. On July 16, Live and Let’s Fly reported that the airline was allowing its reservation agents to offer free flight changes to customers who object to the new name. An internal memo shared with the travel blog reportedly told United Airlines’ reservation agents:

“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).”

There was also a script for dealing with anti-Trump fliers:

“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?” Agents are then instructed to process the change as an even exchange.

It’s unclear if this memo was issued in response to customer demands or if United was just anticipating problems. View From the Wing noted that while plenty of people have been promising to boycott the renamed airport, it’s too early to tell if they’re following through on the threat:

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 …

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.

Either way, just as news of the free flight-change option started spreading, United shut it down. An airline spokesperson told Travel Pulse that you actually can’t switch simply because you wanted to fly to PBI, not DJT.

“That internal message was poorly worded and not accurate,” a United Airlines spokesperson said. “United customers are able to make changes to a ticket without a fee for many reasons. However, our policy doesn’t allow for changes because of an airport’s name or three letter code.”

So if you already have a ticket to President Donald J. Trump International Airport, you’re out of luck. All you can do now is tell yourself that if Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s “mystery dog” can tolerate it, you can, too.

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