United Airlines is walking back a policy that allowed passengers to swap their flights if they were unhappy about landing at the newly renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport. The situation came to light after an internal memo, first reported by aviation blogger Matthew Klint on Live And Let’s Fly, revealed that agents were being given the power to let travelers switch their destination to nearby airports like Fort Lauderdale or Miami without paying extra fees.
The leaked guidance explicitly told reservation agents how to handle these specific requests. The memo even provided a script for staff to use, suggesting they 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?” Agents were then instructed to treat these adjustments as an even exchange.
After the memo started circulating online, United quickly issued a response. The company described the original memo as poorly worded and inaccurate, and stated that their official policy does not allow for flight changes based solely on an airport name or a specific three-letter code. However, the airline did not explicitly deny that the memo was authentic.
A leaked internal memo revealed how United was quietly accommodating passengers over the airport’s renaming
Klint stood by his reporting, noting that the memo was describing an exercise of agent discretion rather than a company-wide policy. He suggested that the memo might have been the work of a lower-level manager rather than a directive from top executives. Regardless of its origin, the guidance was out there and gave agents the ability to help passengers who were bothered by the name change.
According to Mediaite, United has updated the memo to remove the language about offering alternatives due to the name change, though other parts of the document regarding the airport rebranding remain in place.
The airline’s pushback made clear that an objection to a name does not qualify as an official reason for a fee-free change under their standard policies. Similar commentary from Trump has recently addressed other airline industry matters, like a proposed merger between American and United.
As Klint pointed out, this type of policy was likely too generous and could have been abused by people looking to book a cheaper flight into the renamed airport before switching their destination to a more convenient location like Miami or Fort Lauderdale. That potential for misuse may explain why United moved quickly to revise the guidance once it became public.
President Donald Trump has been celebrating the rechristening of the Palm Beach airport. The name change, however, created friction for a segment of travelers, enough that at least one set of internal guidelines was drafted to address their concerns directly, even if that guidance was short-lived. Similar celebrations were expressed by family members, including Eric Trump on his father’s newly renamed airport.
Published: Jul 19, 2026 10:03 am