It targeted vacation locations primarily served by the low cost airline market, in contrast to the company's high-end premium transcontinental brand, United p.s.

Due to the airline crisis caused by spiking fuel prices, on June 4, 2008, United announced that the Ted brand and services would be discontinued.

It began service out of United's hub in Denver International Airport to compete with JetBlue Airways.

All Ted flights were operated by United crews flying under the UAL operating certificate, as Ted was not actually a certificated airline, but rather a brand name applied to differentiate the all-economy service from United's mainline flights.

Ted planes were equipped with 20 overhead retractable LCD screens known as "Tedevision" which were used to play videos throughout the flight.