United Airlines lists 872-825-4000 as its corporate telephone number. The address is 233 South Wacker Drive, in the building Caroline still calls the Sears Tower. She checked the number twice before sending it to Margot.
“Did they just take the first one they were offered?”
Margot was more surprised that Caroline had been reading an airline’s corporate filings. Caroline had been looking for someone above customer service and had become distracted. She has spent years keeping her own 312 number through three phones, two employers and a brief period when Phillip thought they should combine their accounts. The idea that Chicago's hometown airline could move into the Sears Tower and emerge with an 872 required some explanation.
United previously listed 847-700-4000 at its offices in Elk Grove Township. Margot thought keeping that number would have been perfectly reasonable. Her parents still have an 847, and she gives it to delivery people whenever she sends something to their house rather than explaining where they live.
There is a distinction, she said, between an established suburban number and one you have to repeat because the person writing it down thinks you have made a mistake.
Jill, who had been listening while trying to arrange a return to the Container Store, asked whether Caroline actually intended to call United. Caroline said she had already dealt with the original issue, but that was hardly the point.
An 872 can be assigned in both the 312 and 773 territories. It has been around since 2009, which did not particularly help its case with Caroline. She still thinks of the newer codes as something that happened recently, along with people wearing leggings to restaurants and the disappearance of the good stationery department at Marshall Field’s.
Jill said the phone company could not simply keep issuing the same numbers. Caroline agreed, although she wanted to know whether anyone had actually asked for a 312. Numbers are assigned to service providers in blocks, so the arrival of another area code does not mean every individual number in the established one has a person answering it. Getting one from a particular carrier is another matter.
“Phillip negotiated a parking space into his lease,” she said. “I think someone could at least ask about the telephone.”
Margot then noticed that 872-825 spells USA-UAL on a phone keypad. She sent a screenshot with the letters circled. Whether United chose it for that reason was not clear, but she felt it improved the situation considerably.
Caroline studied it for a while. She had to admit it was better than a random number. She also felt that if she needed Margot to draw circles around it, some of the benefit was being lost.
By then Jill had finished arranging her return and wanted to know whether they were going for coffee. Caroline saved the United number before putting her phone away. Under company she entered United Airlines. Under address she put Sears Tower.
Margot asked if she was keeping her reservation for next month.
“Of course. I’m not starting over with American.”