Last week, United Airlines and flight attendant union negotiators came to an agreement on a new contract. Today, the union’s leadership unanimously voted to send the contract out to its members.
Flight attendants will receive copies of the contract tomorrow afternoon, and voting will run April 23 – May 12. If it’s approved, new pay rates will go into effect for June. Aviation watchdog JonNYC has shared the new pay rates early:
UA TA2 pay chart pic.twitter.com/vmrkEdVu2z
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) April 2, 2026
This is about 1% more than comparable American Airlines starting pay rates. It’s also a higher rate than is paid at Delta. Delta has historically made up any difference with larger profit sharing payouts. And without a union contract, Delta increases pay each year so they’ll certainly respond to the United contract (since the same union that represents United is trying to organize at Delta).
By contrast, here’s the pay that was rejected last summer. We’re closer to ‘date of signing +1 year’ so that’s the more relevant comparison. The new contract numbers are about 1% higher than what was negotiated last time. They look like an even larger increase because of the passage of time that would have put United flight attendants into an even higher wage category had last summer’s deal been accepted.
We know that the contract includes pay for ground time on long layovers, boarding pay, and higher retro pay (signing bonus) that accounts for the long period of time since crew got their last raise in 2020 (worth $740 million). And we know there’s stronger language protecting the quality of hotels that flight attendants get on layovers.
However, we do not know what the union had to give up to get these improvements. In an internal communication, United described the agreement as ‘balanced and competitive’ – consistent with their message all along that they would increase pay and other costs if they also got efficiencies in the agreement. Some of the specifics that were floated included:
- PBS (algorithm) scheduling
- The right to own a regional airline, which the current agreement precluded.
That won’t be known until the full agreement is released. But we know that a flight attendant with 13 or more years of seniority willl be earning over $100 per hour in 2030.
United will surely close the profitability gap with Delta now that it has hiked up pay. Reminds one of the very generous deal the UA pilots got in the summer of 2000. That was a major factor in pushing the carrier into bankruptcy in 2002.
$101 an hour to be yelled at by obese old people on $$$$ Polaris tickets. Oh joy.
UNITED RISING
If PBS is in the deal after the union told us it would not be two weeks ago and it was one of the top issues when surveyed it will be another DOA even with higher pay.
They don’t deserve it.
@Gary I mean we of course await the actual contract to see the details but you have posted numerous blog posts stating how badly the AFA-CWA have blundered negotiations, using the pattern bargaining strategy but then losing leverage because of the new administration etc. But if this turns out to be a good agreement will you make a post on how you may have been incorrect? On the surface it looks like:
1. Boarding pay – Could be attributed to pattern bargaining through AA but probably fair to attribute it to Delta who only did it to appease the threat of a Union.
2. Sit Pay – Matches American – so attributed to the pattern bargaining
3. Higher pay rates – this new pay rate is a 5% increase on TA1 (which was already higher than the others) – you called TA1 an inflation adjustment, there has not been 5% inflation in the 9 months since TA1 (probably 2% maybe 3% – so this is at least a 2% real pay rise).
4. Improvements to reserve rules and redeye flying – could also be attributed to pattern bargaining given UAs rules are worse than others
5. Improvement to hotel language (even better than today’s contract)
6. Increases in 401K contributions
7. Not giving in to PBS (I for one think PBS is a good idea, seems like many FAs don’t but it seems like they didn’t have to give that up) – actually better than what pattern bargaining would have led you to expect I suppose
8. Not giving up PTO – pattern bargaining given AA has PTO
9. A host of other small improvements.
So it seems like the patience may have been worth it and this contract may lift the bar for the whole industry – all the while you’ve been slamming AFA every other month.
If the contract is released and has other terrible things in it I’ll be first to admit I’m wrong but I hope Gary will also admit when he is wrong…
@Andy – we don’t know what flight attendants gave up compared to the last deal. I will look at it, and share my thoughts. We know that
– the union said the last deal was the best flight attendants were going to do
– but they misjudged flight attendant priorities for how the dollars were allocated
– united said the last deal had all the dollars on the table, and anything more had to be ‘paid for’
So what did they give up? We’ll know soon enough. But this was *not* the union’s strategy. That was the last contract. Flight attendants rejected the union’s strategy. Hopefully the dollars in this deal better align with what matters most to United’s crew. Because it’s been 5 1/2 years since they’ve had a raise. The value of their wages have eroded dramatically since then. The delays have hurt their most junior members most, but in reality all of them. And a signing bonus doesn’t erase that.
Ultimately United flight attendants endured two years longer than American without a raise to (1) get 1% higher wages (2) while giving up work rules. Worth it?
Why was Jon’s post deleted?
@LadyOlives
Right. It was pilot pay that caused United’s 2002 bankruptcy. Because 9/11, the big drop in flying by the public, and reduced corporate flying had nothing to do with it.
United’s pilot union leadership actually accepted a concessionary contract (with wage cuts, etc.) on June 14th of 2002, which the pilots voted to accept later that October. The company then tried to get the mechanics to do the same, and said that a similar concession by them would prevent a bankruptcy filing. The mechanics turned down a voluntary pay cut and contract changes – all of which occurred before United finally filed for bankruptcy on December 9th, 2002.
So, yeah – the filing was largely due to financial struggles exacerbated by the decline in air travel following the September 11 attacks. Besides – with the latest “very generous” pilot contracts at both Delta and United – they continue to make billions of dollars in profit each year.
At $101/hour, FA’s get paid more than some doctors in lower paying specialties. They can also contribute to their IRA about 10 years sooner due to the long training of some doctors. That is funny!
lady,
I am sure you are being sarcastic but fuel costs alone will WIDEN the distance between DL and UA earnings; labor increases will add costs.
andy,
you do live in a bubble of your own imagination. How would DL be fending off unionization by adding boarding pay which DL was the first to add?
I know it is completely foreign to your thinking but DL people consistently reject unons because they are far better paid and they have enjoyed multiple pay raises – and the interest or time value of money that comes with it – while UA and the AFA have argued incessantly.
UA FAs will NEVER regain the money they lost during the highest inflationary period in 40 years.
They will get retro but not retro plus interest.
michael,
you do realize that UA pilots rejected the company’s first offer post covid and it was DL that set the bar for post-covid labor cost increases with a contract that was worth twice as much as UA offered?
The reason why UA pilots were as militant in 2000 as they were is because UA has never been known for good labor relations – and nothing has changed.
They were determined to squeeze the goose that laid the golden egg and they did – and UA spent longer in bankruptcy than any US airline ever has.
Congrats! Ignore the haters.
@Derek: Your comment is somewhat distorted. A $101 per hour flight attendant is at the very top of the pay scale which one achieves after year 13 of seniority/service. United has thousands of newer flight attendants whose pay scale is about one third of the top-out rate. Secondly, flight attendants’ hourly rates are based upon monthly flight hours which do not equate to what a doctor’s daily or weekly hours may be. Most monthly flying schedules are built between 75-80 hours per month. Flight attendants at UA have the ability to fly additional hours. If a senior topped out flight attendant (under the new contract) flies an average of 90 hours per month that would place them at an approximate gross salary of $109,000. Keep in mind, 90 flight hours per month takes a toll on an aging body and many senior flight attendants cannot sustain this level of flight hours on a consistent basis. If said flight attendant just flies their published line—which is about 80 hours per month—then under the new contract, said (top-of-the-scale) flight attendant will gross about $97,000 per year. There is a distortion of reality when one tries to compare flight attendant pay structures with other non-flying professions as hourly rates for flight crew are based upon monthly hours that come with constraints (FAA duty times, legal crew rest requirements, etc). Now, if one wants to debate the average gross compensation of a topped-out UA flight attendant under the new pay scale, then that’s a different conversation entirely. Otherwise it comparing apples to oranges. Peace out…
What is DOS in this context?
Christian- Gary mentioned it refers to Date of Signing
@ Gary – I’m by no means saying the Union’s work here was great etc. but I do think to say it was a blunder if they walk away here with a great contract is just incorrect. Pattern Bargaining is a strategy, a TA is not a strategy, it is a result of a strategy – The FAs rejected the result of the strategy, not the strategy itself.
@Tim, you clearly didn’t read any of the union busting material that Delta has been publishing since they introduced boarding pay – it has usually been in their top 3 lines “we gave you boarding pay and yet others don’t have it/got it later”. Also you speak as if you know Delta FAs, you know there is a whole round of carding going around right now – why would they do that if all they care about is pay and pay rises? I mean its not like the lack of sick leave, higher rates of sexual discrimination/abuse, the firings without cause, not having a contract so Delta breaks their own rules all the time and FAs just having to suck it up or Delta just imposing new rules and expectations without consulting the FAs at all would ever cause FAs to want to have a union.
For the record I totally agree with you that it is sad that UA have ripped flight attendants off over these negotiations, they for sure lose by having to wait this long for exactly the reasons you stated. You just can’t have your cake and eat it too though, on one post you’ll say that we all have to adjust United’s profits and they aren’t that profitable etc. etc. because of the labor contracts and then on the next post say they profited from delaying the labor contracts. You could say it was genius of United to have unions and go with this strategy – They have probably gained an extra $200-300M from this contract being delayed that Delta doesn’t get because of their poor labor strategy. For the record I don’t care that much about airline profitability – I care about product, innovation, service and I’m happy to see the UA FAs finally get a contract and until Delta actually shows us why they are worth paying a premium for I’ll keep flowing my dollars to United. Every time I fly Delta I am disappointed by something (old planes, bad delays, bad meals, bad service) it happens on United too, just not every time I fly. If United makes $500M or $5B I don’t really care, it doesn’t shape my flying experience – obviously if they aren’t profitable then things get worse (AA looking at you…) but I think right now UA is playing the “We’re second place so we try harder” card while Delta plays the “we are the most profitable so we don’t have to work hard for your money” line.
Andy,
you are the one that is confused.
Delta didn’t implement boarding pay because DL FAs were coming to them demanding to get boarding pay just like AA and UA had – because AA and UA DIDN’T have boarding pay.
Yes, DL can and has touted that it gave boarding pay which UA is now getting around to PERHAPS paying its FAs five years later.
and, yes, UA has benefitted from low labor costs and IF we had to compare UA’s profits to not just DL’s but also AA and UA, WE WOULD HAVE to offset UA’s lack of labor agreements not just w/ the FAs but also mechanics and other groups.
The FAs – IF THEY SIGN – is a big step forward but it isn’t all of UA’s labor groups and it will increase UA’s labor costs. Even if it is only a couple hundred million, it will hurt far more to shell out that kind of money as oil prices soar and demand is certain to soften amidst higher fares.
as for your last paragraph, it really doesn’t matter what any of us THINKS. It does matter what these companies deliver.
I will happily walk away from social media if UA execs and their fans LIKE YOU align their rhetoric w/ what UA is actually delivering and not what you hope they deliver if all of the stars align perfectly.
The people fixating on the headline wage are missing the airline economics. Cabin crew pay is not what makes or breaks a network carrier, operational reliability and revenue quality do. If this deal reduces sick-outs, attrition, drafting friction, hotel blowups, and the kind of crew dissatisfaction that bleeds into premium service, United may have bought itself something far more valuable than a labor peace photo op: a more dependable product. The real question is whether management used this cycle to turn irregular-ops chaos and morale drag into a tighter operation that protects margins. In this business, a cleaner day of operation is often worth more than a cheaper contract.
@Unlucky Larry – they absolutely deserve it, since they have to put up with passengers like you all the time.
@Christian – DOS is Date of (Contract) Signing; that is the date that the Contract is ratified. Contract FAs get two raises per year – one when they begin another year of flying, and another on the anniversary of DOS. So here, DOS+1 is 2027; DOS+2 is 2028, etc.
Let’s say you have a brand-new FA who started in January. They are making $28.88/hr now. On this DOS, they will jump to $36.92. Next January, they jump to $39.15, then on the anniversary of DOS (DOS+1), they go to $40.92 – and so forth and so on. Note: these numbers may or may not be accurate, since the pay scale has not yet been released.
I like how some people equate 101 dollars an hour to all flight attendants! First and foremost how much does it cost to become a flight attendant. My rough estimate for myself is around 20k before I even collected my first paycheck. (Rent still paid at home, car payment, car insurance, extras in training, cell phone, moving to the new location, getting out of old lease, new lease plus new deposit), also not being paid for almost 3 months. Roughly around $20,000
Also, reserve life for the first few years or more. Only working as much as you can per company need.
Also, a bottle of water at an airport or hotel or anything else cost a lot more for flight crew member than any back office, corporate worker. Probably free there.
Also, the food the kitchen the car all the things at home you don’t have access to so paying more for something I already have.
Why do people gripe about flight attendant pay. If you work 100 hours you’re essentially working 200 hours. So it’s 100k a year it actually is 50k. The tricks the airlines play.
If the contract doesn’t make sense, then you have to question United’s motives. Don’t forget these contracts can be amended or voided in bankruptcy….