United Airlines: Delivering Flowers for Mother’s Day
Joe Cortez May 04, 2018
On Mother’s Day, many of us don’t think of where the bouquets of flowers we give mom come from.
Sourced from different countries, many of those come to the country aboard United Airlines. The airline works with local growers, American freight companies, and Customs to ensure smiles to the recipients.
With Mother’s Day around the corner, have you ordered your mother flowers yet? Odds are they may
have come to her doorstep with the help of a familiar brand: United Airlines. USA Today spent a day
tracking the process from farm to table.
Most roses used in flower shops are not grown in the United States, but rather come from Bogota,
Colombia. Every year, the nation produces over 30 million roses that end up around the world. The
farms grow, pick and box the roses – from there, they go on trucks and race to the airport.
When shipping flowers from growers, the agreement is that the buyer selects the carrier to bring them
in. Surprisingly, one of the biggest names in shipping is United. The airline regularly ships roses to
Houston, Miami and Newark in the cargo holds of their regular flights. In the rare event a cargo hold is
full, those flowers will get shipped with a partner airline (like DHL Aviation) before reconnecting with
United to their final destination.
As a specialty carrier that can ship multiple loads the same day flowers are cut, United has a special
process for handling this precious cargo. First, the flowers go from refrigerated trucks to weighing
machines. They are then packed for the flight on pallets, go on a second weighing, before getting
transferred to the cargo hold, where they are transported at 50 degrees for the flight.
After clearing customs, the flowers are sent to a cooling facility, where the flowers rest after their flight.
The extra cooling step refreshes the flowers, letting them rejuvenate before they arrive at their final
destination. Some flowers are transported on the ground to florists across the country using
USA cargo, while others continue on around the world, all flown by United and their international network.
From farm to table, over $2.6 billion of smiles will be delivered via United. While you could earn extra
MileagePlus miles by ordering flowers through United, flying the flowers alone don’t qualify for a bonus.
[Photo: Shutterstock]
