American Airlines

The current American Airlines logo.

The 1967-2013 logo.

American Airlines is a major US airline and currently the largest airline in the world. It is featured in the first three films.

Appearances in the films

Home Alone

The McCallister family flew to Paris on an American Airlines 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 a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 to Dallas, then a DC-10 again, wherein she abruptly ends in Scranton due to a series of fully booked flights.

Home Alone 2

The McCallisters use American Airlines again for their journey to Miami. However, the aircraft used was a Boeing 767–300 while Kevin inadvertently boards a New York-bound Boeing 767-200 after chasing a man who he mistook for his father to the wrong gate.

Home Alone 3

The four wanted criminals, along with Mrs. Hess, travel on an American Airlines Boeing 727 to Chicago from San Francisco. Additionally, Alex Pruitt's father, Jack, uses the airline to fly from Chicago to Cleveland, Ohio vice versa for a business trip.

Behind the scenes

Trivia

• Due to its product placement, 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 the then-disused campus (now the West Campus) of New Trier High School, the same school which leased its swimming pool to film the scene where Kevin McCallister wades through a flooded basement and gymnasium for the majority of the McCallister house interiors. American Airlines provided blueprints and the seats to create the mockups. 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-Fort Worth International Airport, due to the visibility of the airline's hangar in the background.
• The aircraft registrations are unknown in all of the films, but Home Alone 2: Lost in New York has two Boeing 767's of AA identified by registration. Both of these aircraft were retired and placed in storage in 2014, before being eventually scrapped during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • N332AA is depicted as the LaGuardia (LGA)-bound plane Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) mistakenly boards after a man wearing a coat similar to that of his father gets in the way to board the same ORD-LGA flight.
    • Ironically, N332AA is an older sister ship to N334AA, another Boeing 767 which, on September 11, 2001, operated as American Airlines flight 11, which was hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower. AA11 is the first hijacked plane on that fateful day.
  • N358AA is the plane depicted as the Miami-bound plane the rest of the McCallisters board at Gate H17 in Terminal 3 at O'Hare.
• In the original Home Alone script, instead of flying on an American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 to Orly Airport, the McCallisters fly to Charles de Gaulle Airport on an Air France Boeing 747, presumably a -100 or -200 series. Also, instead of taking two flights, one from Orly (ORY) to Dallas-Forth Worth (DFW) and another from DFW to Scranton (AVP), Kate takes an American Airlines flight to Detroit Metropolitan Airport via Boston-Logan International Airport.
  • The same script also depicts Frank and Leslie sitting in the middle row across from Peter and Kate instead of the row directly in front of them.
• In the original Home Alone 2: Lost in New York script, both aircraft are Boeing 727s instead of 767s. Also, the rest of the McCallisters fly to Orlando instead of Miami.

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 aircraft depicted flying the McCallisters to Paris in the first film was a -10 series, identified by only two central landing gears during the takeoff scene. In real-life, this type was only used for domestic flights within the mainland United States as it has a range of only 3,500 miles, making it impossible to do transatlantic services. The -30 and -40 series are the only DC-10s that have both transatlantic and transpacific range.
  • Despite being used on domestic routes, the only international routes this variant was deployed on were those in Canada or Mexico.
• 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 flies to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 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 because they are too large to be serviced at the airport for non-emergency situations.
  • Also, American Airlines did not serve Scranton until 2010. USAir (later US Airways) was the only known airline that did so in 1990. Coincidentally, the airline merged with American Airlines in 2015, 25 years after the film was released.
    • Comair, Continental Express, and USAir Express (later US Airways Express) possibly served Scranton that year.
• Although the McCallister family, except Kevin, flies 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.
• In Home Alone 2, the flight that Kevin gets onto is referred to as flight 226 when the final boarding call is made. Later, the stewardess says that the flight number is 176. The flight is then seen on ATC radar as 226.
  • Incidentally, both flights 176 and 226, were flights in 1991 that American operated between Chicago O'Hare, and New York - LaGuardia Airports.

Gallery

Home Alone

The family reaching the gate. An AA DC-10 is visible.

The DC-10 landing in Scranton (actually a reused footage of the same plane landing in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport).

The DC-10 in flight.

The DC-10 taking off for Paris. Depicted here is a -10 series, which does not have transatlantic range and is only used for domestic flights.

The first class cabin of the DC-10 as it appears in the film. The baby in the photo is the director's daughter, Eleanor Columbus.

Meal service on the first class cabin.

Frank and Leslie arguing about taking airline property.

Peter and Kate resting before realizing that Kevin has been left "home alone".

Home Alone 2: Lost In New York

The tickets issued for Kevin and his mother, Kate.

Two AA skycap porters at O'Hare Terminal 3's curbside check-in.

An American Airlines 767-223ER (registration N332AA) which Kevin mistakenly boards.

N332AA on pushback for LaGuardia Airport in New York.

What appears to be the cabin of N332AA is actually a cabin of a former AA 747-100, dressed to imitate a 767 cabin.

N353AA or N358AA taking the McCallisters to Miami, Florida.

The 767 landing in New York.

Kevin converses with a Frenchman in the economy class cabin (branded as Main Cabin).

Kate, Peter, Frank, and Leslie inside the first class cabin of the 767 in the second film (unaware that Kevin is not with them).

Home Alone 3

Flight information board in San Francisco International Airport (filmed at Chicago O'Hare International Airport).

The AA 727 carrying Mrs. Hess and the four criminals.

Rows of AA aircraft at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (filmed at O'Hare).