With the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Games in London approaching on Friday July 27, athletes are making their final trips to the English city. Each team has their own special way of getting to the Olympic Games. Many fly on special-edition planes that were redecorated just for the Games. For Team USA, they're flying with a longtime sponsor of the Olympic Games-United Airlines.
United Airlines is the official airline for Team USA and it has been for decades. United claims to have taken the team to the Games for over 30 years.
"As the official airline of Team USA, United is proud to have flown our U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes to and from training, competitions, Trials and the Olympic Games for the past 32 years," said Mark Bergsrud, senior vice president of marketing.
A fun fact is that the Team USA Olympians fly on regularly scheduled flights, American citizens have a chance to share a plane with some athletes as they make their way to London, according to Jaunted.
On Monday July 16, some travelers got to join the US Archery team on a Unite flight leaving Chicago-O'Hare Airport, United's main airport. The US Archery team was the only group of US teammates to fly together on the same plane.
As an Olympics sponsor and the official airline of Team USA, United is excited about their involvement for so many years. Several United ads can be see on Chicago trains and other around the country. The ads proudly state that United is "Proud to fly Team USA for over 30 years."
In May, the airline held a contest to send lucky winners on a trip of their own to the Olympics. In their "Fly Me to London" sweepstakes, they chose three grand-prize winners to win two round trip tickets to London for the Olympics, along with hotel accommodations.
They also gave out several runner-up place prizes. Being that the Olympics are 17 days long and United offers 17 daily nonstop flights to London, they awarded 17 first lucky winners two roundtrip tickets on any United flight in the United States.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
