Leaked Memo Reveals Trump-Hater Discount For Trump Int’l Airport Changes — Airline Pushes Back

United Airlines pushed back after a leaked internal memo revealed agents being instructed to offer free changes to passengers who do not want to land at Donald J. Trump International Airport.

President Donald Trump has been basking in the glow of the newly-rechristened Palm Beach airport, now known as the “President Donald J. Trump International Airport.”

But not everyone is happy about the change, and aviation blogger Matthew Klint revealed this week that United gave agents the discretion to let customers divert to another airport for free:

According to an internal memo shared with Live And Let’s Fly, United is the process of updating its systems to rename West Palm Beach Airport (PBI) to President Donald J. Trump (DJT).

But the most interesting guidance concerns customers who object to the airport’s new name.

United tells 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).”

The memo even provides a suggested response:

“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.

United is pushing back on Klint’s scoop — but seemed to acknowledge the memo by calling it “poorly worded”:

United told USA TODAY the message was poorly worded and not accurate. United customers are able to make changes to a ticket without a fee for many reasons. However, (their) policy doesn’t allow for changes because of an airport’s name or three-letter code.

New signs welcome travelers to Donald J. Trump International Airport on July 9, 2026 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The statement leaves some room for agents to accommodate travelers under United’s existing change policies, but the airline said an objection to the airport’s name or code is not, by itself, an official reason for a fee-free change.

But that statement isn’t mutually exclusive to Klint’s reporting, which describes an exercise of discretion rather than a blanket policy. After the backtrack, Klint stood by his reporting:

After that memo went viral, United issued a carefully worded statement saying the memo was “poorly worded” and “inaccurate” (without denying its authenticity) and adding:

“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.”

Let’s be clear: the memo was not unclear at all. It may have been written by a lower level manager rather than represent C-Suite policy, but it clearly authorized reservation agents to use their discretion to reaccomodate disgruntled passengers flying into DJT. We are told that the memo, still dated July 8th with the same title, has been updated to remove that language but otherwise left unchanged concerning United’s internal updates for renaming PBI to DJT.

He also noted that “I understand why United decided to quickly end its surprisingly generous policy of accommodating these disgruntled passengers…it was far too generous in the first place and ripe for abuse for those who may have booked into DJT because it was cheaper than used this unpublished policy to move to FLL or MIA.”

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