United Is Retiring the 747 With a ’70s-Themed Flight to Hawaii

Expect throwback uniforms, old-school menus and a welcome luau

September 20, 2017 9:00 am EDT

Airline promotions are rarely interesting — and if they are, they’ll usually pricy (see: double-beds for upper class bookings on Qatar that’ll run you about the same cost as a quality used car.) Here’s an exception: United’s celebration of the final SFO-Honolulu run on a “Queen of the Skies” 747. This one-time-only flight is on November 7. Within an hour of its announcement, the flight had sold out, though it’s possible there will be cancellations should you choose to hawkeye the United site.

And the lucky few who did score a ticket? They’ll get to mix and mingle with flight attendants in ’70s-themed uniforms, “inflight entertainment befitting of that first flight [in 1970 — so Love Story? Or even better, the year’s second-most popular film, the disaster flick Airport]”, and a celebration upon landing in Honolulu. 

Honestly, we can’t remember a more festive flight promotion. Let’s have more of these, please, airlines — and let’s give some gold stars to the United PR and marketing team, which God knows has had a difficult time lately. 

Meet your guide

Diane Rommel

Diane Rommel

Diane Rommel has written for The Wall Street Journal, Outside, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Travel + Leisure, Wallpaper and Afar, as well as The Cut, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and McSweeney’s. She once drove from London to Mongolia, via Siberia.
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