We recently saw Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) be renamed and get a new IATA code, as it’s now officially known as President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT). As you’d expect, opinions on that are mixed — some people are overjoyed to be able to fly into an airport named after Trump, while others are horrified.
Along those lines, United Airlines has quietly introduced an interesting policy internally, and it potentially creates an opportunity for passengers, which I find to be sort of hilarious.
In this post:
United is telling reservations agents that “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 idea is that customers can change their flights to those airports without a fare difference, though there’s an element of discretion to all of this.
The memo even gives reservations agents a suggested response if someone expresses concern, telling them to say “I understand that you’d rather not fly to this airport anymore,” and “we can look at nearby airports like Fort Lauderdale or Miami instead, is that an acceptable alternative?”
This policy strikes me as being… overly customer friendly?
Airlines typically don’t allow flight changes simply because a customer doesn’t like the name of an airport. I have to say, even as someone who objects to naming airports after politicians, not wanting to fly into the airport because of the name strikes me as a bit much… but that’s just me.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
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