Air Canada has cancelled standby travel benefits as flight attendants prepare to go on strike. Cabin crew and other employees will not be allowed to begin nonrev trips until at least August 23. An employees are lashing out in message boards, seeing the move as petty.
- Air Canada and its flight attendants union are at an impasse. The CUPE, representing 10,000 cabin crew, authorized a strike with a 99.7% vote in favor. The union issued a 72-hour strike notice, so broad cancellations could begin Saturday, August 16, 2025.
- Air Canada answered with a lockout notice, aiming to wind operations down in a controlled manner rather than risk a sudden walkout.
- Air Canada Express services run by Jazz and PAL continue, and represent about 20% of the airline’s passengers.
Air Canada says it negotiated in good faith and offered binding arbitration. It is offering a 38% increase in total compensation over four years, plus ground pay; better pensions and benefits; more crew rest; and no concessions.
The union, though, says there’s still unpaid work and insufficient pay, and rejects arbitration because it’s too status quo-biased and because it would bypass a member vote. They say the ‘real offer’ is a 17.2% increase over four years; that the first year 8% “catch-up” raise doesn’t cover inflation-eroded purchasing power (they say that’s ~9%); and that pay will still trail other Canadian airlines.
They say entry-level full-time flight attendants, after the first-year bump, would gross about C$2,108 per month. A full time minimum wage worker (C$17.75/hr) would earn around one-third more (for more hours of work).
Here’s the message from Air Canada suspending nonrev travel:
Nonrev travel privileges are one of the key benefits of working for an airline, especially at a junior level although that’s also when travel is least affordable (you still pay for lodging, meals and activities). And there’s an uproar amongst flight attendants that the airline is blocking them from using these benefits.
- On the one hand, restricting travel benefits prevents people from getting stuck wherever they travel to, and preserves seats to allow others to return from wherever they are.
- On the other hand, standby seat privileges only get used if a seat remains empty and paying passengers aren’t taking the seat.
So Air Canada is both preparing for chaos in the event we reach the deadline for strike and lockout with no deal by canceling non-essential travel and is telling flight attendants that if they aren’t going to work, they also aren’t going to use their benefits to enjoy the time off.
British Airways in the past has threatened flight attendants who strike that their flight privileges would be stripped permanently, and that only those crew who cross picket lines would receive standby benefits when the strike was over. Of course those who do cross get villified by their union, and the airline can’t alway sbe trusted to carry through with the threat (since the union will seek to bargain that threat away as part of an eventual deal).
I’m scheduled to visit Canada next week (on United), should be interesting to see what AC airport operations are looking like. Hope they find a mutually acceptable resolution soon.
Hoping they confirm a better contract soon. Most passengers want happy, well-supported pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, ground crew, and support staff for airlines. Whether it’s Air Canada, United, or companies anywhere: Resist the urge to blame the workers; they all deserve better.
If the FAs want a higher salary they should give up the travel benefits.
You cannot have both, it does not work this way.
And striking is petty and punitive too, is it not?
“Deserve”, lmao. You deserve no more than anyone is willing to pay you, free of force or coercion….same as for anyone. FAs are unskilled labor, so they can only make more money through extortion, because there’s an unlimited quantity of other people willing to do their job. Why deprive those willing to work for the same or less, and do a better job as well? So I’d say what they deserve is to be unemployed.
Pay below minimum wage is unacceptable, no matter how you look at it. Yes, the crew gets benefits – but so do minimum wage workers.
@Tony — No, not true, at all. You can pay your people a living (or even ‘thriving’) wages, benefits, etc. You can take good care of your people. Management (and the capital class) is being greedy here, not these workers.
@Mantis — Striking is better than the alternative… perhaps, you should revisit the late 1890s, first Gilded Age… or, for a more recent example, consider a pleasant ‘stay’ at the historic New York Hilton Midtown…
@Mantis unskilled labor isn’t a thing. It is a made up bifurcation as a tool to pay people less. This was relatively debunked during the pandemic.
To be fair they provided a good rationale for suspending the benefit temporarily. They want to provide all available space for non-employee travel (paid or points). You would expect that as soon as operations resume the suspension would be lifted.
If you aren’t coming to work, you don’t get to enjoy the benefits. They voted to strike. The seats are needed for revenue customers – and quite honestly (just like other non-rev embargos) it’s probably for the best because it isn’t enabling employees to get into a position where those 30 open seats become -5 because of a flight cancelation because of the lock-out/labor action (sorry, labour).
They’re letting people traveling attempt to get home and still allowing those who commute to work. A lock-out due to a strike notification doesn’t mean you get vacation to use your benefits on the same company you’re striking.
I don’t blame the workers but I support management for taking steps to reduce the potential operational problems and stranding of customers by pro-actively shutting down so that assets are in place to best recover when appropriate. Striking is a right of the employees under CBA and law… it’s also a right to say you can’t use free travel benefits during that time.
I’m going to Canada this weekend… glad I’m flying Porter, Pascan, and for once I’ll admit to being glad to fly American the other way.
What on earth would make striking employees think they’re entitled to free travel?
Totally support their right to strike, but not to travel the globe while striking. That’s just selfish.
Technically flying non-rev during a strike would be ‘crossing’ the picket line anyway right? So what’s the complaint….
Flight attendant are always complaining that nonrev benefits aren’t “real” benefits anyway……why are they so salty about losing them then? Look, If you vow to hurt your employer, then you deserve every bit of what they do to respond.
@ Gary, where is the uproar amongst flight attendants? What I’m seeing in the socials is a huge amount of solidarity around this about them ready to strike and if that means no non-rev travel so be it. The uproar is from the other employees, the pilots, the ground staff and yes management too who aren’t participants in the strike but are also not allowed to non-rev… This is really interesting reporting from you Gary, just saying there is uproar but not actually showing it?