50 Fun Facts About United Airlines

Which George Gershwin piece has United Airlines long used as the theme music of its advertisements and safety videos?

Rhapsody in Blue cost United $500,000 to license from Gershwin's estate, and it still plays in the underground walkway of the airline's Chicago terminal.

The United Center, named for United Airlines since it opened in 1994, is the home arena of which NBA team?

Bulls fans pass a statue of Michael Jordan in mid-air at the arena, which the owners of the Bulls and hockey's Blackhawks hold jointly.

United Airlines has its headquarters in which Chicago skyscraper, where it is the largest tenant?

Willis Tower, the former Sears Tower, became United's headquarters after Chicago offered $35 million in incentives to bring 2,500 suburban staff downtown.

Canadian musician Dave Carroll's viral 2009 protest song accused United Airlines baggage handlers of breaking what?

A guitar worth $3,500 was the casualty; the video drew 150,000 views in a day, and the instrument's maker, Taylor, offered Carroll two new ones.

Until 1970 United Airlines sold extra-fare flights with steak and cigars that barred children and which other group?

Women were shut out of the men-only flights, which ran six afternoons a week between New York and Chicago and between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Which name did United Airlines give the low-cost brand it flew from 2004 to 2009 to take on JetBlue and Frontier?

Ted is simply the last three letters of United; its 56 Airbus A320s had no first class, and the brand folded after fuel prices spiked in 2008.

United Airlines Flight 93, whose passengers fought back against hijackers on September 11, 2001, crashed in which state?

Pennsylvania's Flight 93 National Memorial now stands in the field near Shanksville, about 20 minutes' flying time from Washington, D.C.

The man dragged off a United Express plane in Chicago in 2017 would not give up his seat because of which job?

Doctor David Dao said he had patients to see the next morning; he suffered a concussion and lost two front teeth, and United later settled with him.

In 1930 a United Airlines forerunner hired Ellen Church as the first airline stewardess; what was her profession?

Nursing was required of all the early stewardesses: Church argued that having nurses aboard would calm a public still afraid to fly.

United Airlines joined Lufthansa, Air Canada and two other carriers in 1997 to found which global airline network?

Star Alliance was the first global airline alliance, and it has grown from five founders to more than two dozen member carriers.

When President Nixon took a scheduled United Airlines DC-10 in 1973 to save fuel, what call sign did the flight use?

Executive One is the call sign for any civilian plane carrying the president, and Nixon remains the only sitting president to fly a regular commercial flight.

United Airlines adopted its globe tail logo from which carrier, its partner in a 2010 merger?

Continental kept its globe on the merged airline's tails even though the United name won out, and the two carriers shared a founder in Walter Varney.

Which flower gave its nickname to the United Airlines logo of overlapping U shapes, used from 1974 until 2010?

Tulip was only a nickname: the ribbon-like stripes formed the airline's monogram and were also said to suggest the motion of flight.

Which designer of Alfred Hitchcock's film title sequences created the United Airlines logo introduced in 1974?

Saul Bass, famed for the opening titles of Psycho and Vertigo, also drew logos for AT&T and the Bell System.

United Airlines Flight 232 lost all its flight controls in 1989 and crash-landed at an airport where in Iowa?

Sioux City saw the DC-10 arrive steered by engine thrust alone, and 184 of the 296 people aboard survived a landing that test pilots could not later reproduce.

In 2004 a United Airlines 747 made the first scheduled US airline flight since 1975 to which country?

Vietnam had seen no scheduled American airliner since just before the fall of Saigon; United's jet landed in Ho Chi Minh City from San Francisco via Hong Kong.

United Airlines' first route to Asia opened in 1983, linking the Pacific Northwest with which city?

Tokyo had been out of reach since regulators denied United's Pacific bid in 1969, a setback that helped turn the airline into a champion of deregulation.

In 1985 United Airlines paid $750 million for the entire Pacific Division of which struggling American rival?

Pan Am gave up a quarter of its route system in the sale, and United later bought its London Heathrow routes as well.

In 2011 United Airlines replaced the 38 pounds of paper manuals and charts in each pilot's flight bag with which device?

iPad tablets, 11,000 of them, went to United's pilots; each weighs under a pound and a half, which trims fuel burn as well as paper.

In 1954 United Airlines bought which $3 million Curtiss-Wright machines to train its pilots on the ground?

Flight simulators bought that year were the first for commercial pilots to combine visual, sound and motion cues.

United Airlines operates a hub far from the US mainland on which island in the western Pacific?

Guam is also the starting point of United's Island Hopper, a route that stops at a string of small Micronesian islands on its way to Honolulu.

Launched in 1981, a week after American's AAdvantage, what is the name of United Airlines' frequent flyer program?

MileagePlus was written as two words until 2011, and it outlived the 2010 merger while its new partner's OnePass scheme was retired.

Which celestial name does United Airlines give its long-haul business class, with lie-flat seats and its own lounges?

Polaris brands seats that turn into flat beds 6 feet 6 inches long, as well as lounges with showers and sit-down dining.

Which car rental giant did United Airlines' parent company own in 1987 when it renamed itself Allegis?

Hertz sat beside the Westin and Hilton hotel chains in a travel empire investors disliked; the pieces were sold and the UAL name was back by 1988.

A 1994 buyout handed 55% of United Airlines stock to which group, making it the world's largest company so owned?

Its employees took pay cuts for the stake, which the airline's 2002 slide into Chapter 11 left all but worthless; one union stayed out of the deal altogether.

While reorganizing under Chapter 11 in 2005, United Airlines made the largest default of its kind in US history on what?

Its pension plans were cancelled in a restructuring that also cut union pay, while CEO Glenn Tilton drew the highest salary of any major US airline chief.

United Airlines helped design which long-haul widebody airliner and flew its first commercial service in 1995?

Boeing's 777 was shaped by eight airlines, but United placed the launch order in 1990 and took delivery of the first jet in May 1995.

Which co-writer of Good Will Hunting voiced the United Airlines commercials that debuted during the 2012 Olympics?

Matt Damon narrated the Team USA spots, a job Robert Redford had done for United's animated commercials of the 2000s.

A United Airlines DC-7 and a TWA airliner collided in 1956 over which landmark, spurring reform of air traffic control?

Grand Canyon skies were uncontrolled airspace where pilots had to spot one another by eye; the outcry led to the creation of the FAA two years later.

What does United Airlines call the top published elite tier of its frequent flyer program, one step above Platinum?

Premier 1K sits above Silver, Gold and Platinum, though the invitation-only Global Services level ranks higher still off the published list.

Varney Air Lines, the first United Airlines forerunner to carry airmail in 1926, was based in which state capital?

Boise was a stop on Varney's first contract mail run between Pasco, Washington, and Elko, Nevada, a 1926 flight that United treats as its own birthday.

The Air Mail Act of 1934 split United Airlines from its parent by barring airlines from sharing owners with whom?

Aircraft makers and airlines had to part, so one conglomerate became three firms: United Air Lines, Boeing and United Aircraft, the forerunner of today's RTX.

After its 2010 merger, United Airlines kept a large office in which Texas city, its partner's former headquarters?

Houston still houses United staff in downtown offices, and its Intercontinental airport is one of the airline's hubs.

Through its 2010 merger, United Airlines gained a major hub at which airport serving the New York City area?

Newark came with a condition: regulators approved the merger only after the airlines agreed to lease 18 pairs of takeoff and landing slots there to Southwest.

When Stapleton Airport closed in 1995, United Airlines moved its hub to the new international airport of which city?

Denver had been a United stop since 1937, and the airline's hub simply moved across town when the new airport replaced Stapleton.

United Airlines agreed in 2021 to buy 15 Overture jets from the startup Boom; what sets the Overture apart?

Supersonic flight is the promise: Boom is aiming for a cruise of Mach 1.7, and United took options on 35 more of the jets.

In 2011 United Airlines flew the first commercial flight powered partly by a biofuel made from which microbes?

Algae supplied 40 percent of the fuel aboard a 737 flying from Texas to Chicago, with ordinary jet fuel making up the rest.

In 2015 United Airlines rewarded two hackers who found security flaws in its website with one million each of what?

Miles were the only prize in United's bug bounty, which rewarded outside researchers with air travel instead of cash for reporting security flaws.

A 2017 United Airlines project with Audubon International aimed to move hawks and owls from New York airports to where?

Golf courses give the raptors open habitat well away from runways, where the birds are judged more likely to thrive.

United Airlines founded a global airline network in 1997 with four partners; which Asian carrier was among them?

Thai Airways stood beside Scandinavian Airlines as a founder; when Singapore Airlines joined later, the Thai carrier weighed leaving for a rival group before staying put.

A 1961 merger with Capital Airlines made United Airlines the world's second-largest airline behind which state carrier?

Aeroflot, the Soviet Union's vast state airline, stayed ahead, but the merger lifted United past its old rival American.

Before a 2011 rebranding that followed its big merger, what were United Airlines' own airport lounges called?

Red Carpet Club lounges took the United Club name on the same day as the Presidents Club rooms that had come with the merger.

Which title did United Airlines give its inflight magazine, launched in 1992 and known for a Three Perfect Days feature?

Hemispheres was once produced in Greensboro, North Carolina, before moving to New York, and reached well over 100 million passengers a year.

Which British director was nominated for an Academy Award for United 93, the 2006 film about a hijacked flight?

Paul Greengrass told the story in real time, so the film runs about as long as the events it shows, starting from takeoff.

Five United Airlines workers led by Ada Brown founded the first successful union for which airline job in the 1940s?

Flight attendants won their first contract from United in 1946, after the airline chose to work with the new union instead of opposing it.

United Airlines' Friendship One, a 747SP with Neil Armstrong aboard, made the fastest trip yet of which kind in 1988?

Around the world took only two refuelling stops, in Athens and Taipei, and the charity flight raised about $500,000 for children's causes.

Nine passengers died in 1989 when which part of United Airlines Flight 811, a 747, burst open after leaving Honolulu?

Cargo door blame first fell on ground handlers, but the finding was revisited after the door itself was recovered from the deep seabed.

United Airlines Flight 173 ran out of fuel near Portland in 1978, prompting which training United launched in 1981?

Crew resource management grew from the finding that the co-pilot and engineer of Flight 173 only hinted at low fuel while the captain worked on a landing-gear fault.

What does United Airlines call the coach seats with extra legroom at the front of the cabin and in exit rows?

Economy Plus adds up to six inches of pitch and extra recline, but the food and service match the rows behind.

United Airlines' hub for Washington, D.C., is which airport, named for President Eisenhower's secretary of state?

Dulles became a United hub in the 1980s, when the airline began shifting its secondary eastern hub there from Cleveland.