Her maiden voyage was between Liverpool and New York in June 1923; she was employed on this route in the summer months until World War II.

[5] American songwriter Cole Porter, composed the song "Begin the Beguine", while aboard the Franconia from Kalabahi, Dutch East Indies, to Fiji in 1935.

[7] On 16 June 1940, while en route to St Nazaire as part of Operation Aerial (the evacuation of the Second British Expeditionary Force from France), she was damaged by near-misses from German bombs and was escorted back to Liverpool for repairs.

[15] Franconia was retired in 1956 with her fleetmate RMS Ascania having been replaced on the Canadian run by Saxonia, Ivernia and the Carinthia.

In recognition of her important Canadian immigration role, Cunard Line gave the builder's model of Franconia to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia.