"K. Ari Krupnikov" wrote:

I guess I was trying to ask a more general question. Forget the
context. If you are cleared direct to your destination, what point are
you cleared to?

If you're 40 NM out and you have the airport in sight, you can navigate
directly to "the airport" by visual reference. Any number of lat/long
points would be satisfactory navigationally. If the air isn't so clear, I
happen to use the airport reference point in the GPS database.

In the case in question, the pilot was cleared to his destination airport,
and then his clearance was amended. His new clearance limit was an NDB with
the same name as the airport. The navaid happens to be on the field, so
even if he didn't pick up on the change, the problem was conceptual rather
than navigational. Conceptually, if he had made the connection, it might
have helped him better understand what was expected by ATC, and maybe even
got him pointed in the direction of the NDB approach plate which depicts the
hold.

Someplace like Sacramento, where the distance between the airport and its
homonymic* VORTAC is five miles, there's actually a navigational necessity
to get it right.

* I'll probably never get to use that word in a sentence again in my life,
so I take the opportunity now.