United Airlines
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50 free United Airlines trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
United Airlines is one of the oldest names in American flying, with roots in the open-cockpit mail planes of the 1920s. Decades of mergers, record orders, bold marketing and the occasional public relations disaster have left it with more stories than most carriers can claim. This quiz covers the whole journey: the founders and forerunners, the planes United helped bring to market, its hubs and headquarters, its logos and theme music, its cabins and loyalty perks, and the moments that made headlines for good or ill. It is written for frequent flyers, aviation fans and anyone who has ever killed time at a departure gate. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will land with a few facts worth repeating.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which George Gershwin piece has United Airlines long used as the theme music of its advertisements and safety videos?
Rhapsody in Blue
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.
Q 02The United Center, named for United Airlines since it opened in 1994, is the home arena of which NBA team?
Bulls
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.
Q 03United Airlines has its headquarters in which Chicago skyscraper, where it is the largest tenant?
Willis Tower
Willis Tower, the former Sears Tower, became United's headquarters after Chicago offered $35 million in incentives to bring 2,500 suburban staff downtown.
Q 04Canadian musician Dave Carroll's viral 2009 protest song accused United Airlines baggage handlers of breaking what?
A guitar
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.
Q 05Until 1970 United Airlines sold extra-fare flights with steak and cigars that barred children and which other group?
Women
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.
Q 06Which name did United Airlines give the low-cost brand it flew from 2004 to 2009 to take on JetBlue and Frontier?
Ted
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.
Q 07United Airlines Flight 93, whose passengers fought back against hijackers on September 11, 2001, crashed in which state?
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's Flight 93 National Memorial now stands in the field near Shanksville, about 20 minutes' flying time from Washington, D.C.
Q 08The man dragged off a United Express plane in Chicago in 2017 would not give up his seat because of which job?
Doctor
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.
Q 09In 1930 a United Airlines forerunner hired Ellen Church as the first airline stewardess; what was her profession?
Nursing
Nursing was required of all the early stewardesses: Church argued that having nurses aboard would calm a public still afraid to fly.
Q 10United Airlines joined Lufthansa, Air Canada and two other carriers in 1997 to found which global airline network?
Star Alliance
Star Alliance was the first global airline alliance, and it has grown from five founders to more than two dozen member carriers.
Q 11When President Nixon took a scheduled United Airlines DC-10 in 1973 to save fuel, what call sign did the flight use?
Executive One
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.
Q 12United Airlines adopted its globe tail logo from which carrier, its partner in a 2010 merger?
Continental
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.
Q 13Which flower gave its nickname to the United Airlines logo of overlapping U shapes, used from 1974 until 2010?
Tulip
Q 21United Airlines operates a hub far from the US mainland on which island in the western Pacific?
Guam
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.
Q 22Launched in 1981, a week after American's AAdvantage, what is the name of United Airlines' frequent flyer program?
MileagePlus
MileagePlus was written as two words until 2011, and it outlived the 2010 merger while its new partner's OnePass scheme was retired.
Q 23Which celestial name does United Airlines give its long-haul business class, with lie-flat seats and its own lounges?
Polaris
Polaris brands seats that turn into flat beds 6 feet 6 inches long, as well as lounges with showers and sit-down dining.
Tulip was only a nickname: the ribbon-like stripes formed the airline's monogram and were also said to suggest the motion of flight.
Q 14Which designer of Alfred Hitchcock's film title sequences created the United Airlines logo introduced in 1974?
Saul Bass
Saul Bass, famed for the opening titles of Psycho and Vertigo, also drew logos for AT&T and the Bell System.
Q 15United Airlines Flight 232 lost all its flight controls in 1989 and crash-landed at an airport where in Iowa?
Sioux City
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.
Q 16In 2004 a United Airlines 747 made the first scheduled US airline flight since 1975 to which country?
Vietnam
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.
Q 17United Airlines' first route to Asia opened in 1983, linking the Pacific Northwest with which city?
Tokyo
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.
Q 18In 1985 United Airlines paid $750 million for the entire Pacific Division of which struggling American rival?
Pan Am
Pan Am gave up a quarter of its route system in the sale, and United later bought its London Heathrow routes as well.
Q 19In 2011 United Airlines replaced the 38 pounds of paper manuals and charts in each pilot's flight bag with which device?
iPad
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.
Q 20In 1954 United Airlines bought which $3 million Curtiss-Wright machines to train its pilots on the ground?
Flight simulators
Flight simulators bought that year were the first for commercial pilots to combine visual, sound and motion cues.
Q 24Which car rental giant did United Airlines' parent company own in 1987 when it renamed itself Allegis?
Hertz
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.
Q 25A 1994 buyout handed 55% of United Airlines stock to which group, making it the world's largest company so owned?
Its employees
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.
Q 26While reorganizing under Chapter 11 in 2005, United Airlines made the largest default of its kind in US history on what?
Its pension plans
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.
Q 27United Airlines helped design which long-haul widebody airliner and flew its first commercial service in 1995?
777
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.
Q 28Which co-writer of Good Will Hunting voiced the United Airlines commercials that debuted during the 2012 Olympics?
Matt Damon
Matt Damon narrated the Team USA spots, a job Robert Redford had done for United's animated commercials of the 2000s.
Q 29A United Airlines DC-7 and a TWA airliner collided in 1956 over which landmark, spurring reform of air traffic control?
Grand Canyon
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.
Q 30What does United Airlines call the top published elite tier of its frequent flyer program, one step above Platinum?
Premier 1K
Premier 1K sits above Silver, Gold and Platinum, though the invitation-only Global Services level ranks higher still off the published list.