American Airlines is a major US Airline that frequently features in the film series.
Appearances in the films
Home Alone
The McCallister family flew on Paris on the airline's McDonnell Douglas DC-10. When Kate returns to the United States to retrieve Kevin, she flies the same airline to get to Chicago by first taking the airline's McDonnell Douglas MD-80 to Dallas and again a DC-10, wherein she abruptly ends in Scranton due to a blizzard and a series of overbooked flights.
Home Alone 2
The McCallisters use the same airline again during their journey to Miami. However, the aircraft used was a Boeing 767-200. Kevin inadvertently boards another of the airline's 767s which operated as a New York-bound flight after a man dressed in the same jacket as his father rushes in the way for the same New York flight.
Home Alone 3
The four wanted criminals along with Mrs. Hess use the airline's McDonnell Douglas MD-80 to travel to Chicago from San Francisco.
Behind the scenes
Trivia
- American Airlines acted as a partner and sponsor for the original home video releases of the first two films
- The in-flight scenes in the first film were done using a mock-up of the airline's first class cabin, which was built on the basketball courts of New Trier High School. American Airlines provided blueprints and the seats to create the mock ups. The second film's in-flight scenes were done on the airline's actual aircraft instead.
- The Scranton DC-10 scene is a reused stock footage of the same plane landing in Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport, due to the visibility of the airline's hangar in the background and that American Airlines is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
Errors and goofs
- The O'Hare-Orly flight in the movie takes place in the morning as opposed to being an early evening flight in real-life.
- The DC-10 that flew the McCallisters to Paris in the first film was a -10 series, which in real-life is only used on domestic flights. The -10 series has a range of only 3500 miles, making it impossible to do transatlantic services. The DC-10-30 series is the only DC-10 that has a transatlantic range.
- Prior to the McCallisters rushing through Paris-Orly International Airport, the American Airlines plane landing is depicted as a Boeing 757-223 as opposed to a DC-10.
- Kate McCallister abruptly stops at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Airport on a DC-10. The largest planes to land at Scranton are Boeing 737s
and Airbus A320s. Scranton has never had regular service from a DC-10 by any airline and that DC-10's are too large for the airport for non-emergency situations.
- Although the McCallister family, except Kevin fly to Miami on a 767, American Airlines never operated 767's on the O'Hare-Miami route in the 1990s. The widebody at that time on that route was an Airbus A300.