American Airlines flight attendants haven’t had a raise since 2019. Their contract became amendable, but negotiations were first delayed by the pandemic and have been slow since. And the value of their wages have been eroded by inflation.
The airline has offered to match the top of the industry – what non-union Delta pays its flight attendants:
- Wages
- Boarding pay, which Delta introduced and which no union contract has yet achieved (indeed, it’s not something they ever really wanted until Delta gave it voluntarily)
- Profit sharing formula
The union has rejected this, demanding more than the top pay rate of $76 per hour that American is offering as well as retro pay for the years they’ve been without a new contract. Here are current hourly rates, what the union asked for, and what American offered:
Flight attendants voted to authorize a strike. The union made that request to the National Mediation Board, but it was rejected. They asked again, and had a status conference this month. The federal government needs to release them into a 30 day cooling off period prior to any ‘self-help’.
Meanwhile American Airlines has a new proposal. Flight attendants are being offered pay that would have them at the top of the industry, but a number of pay deals are outstanding. They don’t want to be left behind by Delta’s voluntary annual raises, or by new contracts negotiated at United, Southwest, or Alaska.
- So instead of a 5 year deal, American has suggested a 2 year deal – so they could come back to the table for a new contract based on raises any other flight attendant group is able to achieve.
- And they’d be allowed to negotiate even sooner if United gives their flight attendants a better deal. I’ve said for some time that the best hope of a better union contract that American flight attendants have is another union negotiating a better deal first.
In fact, Southwest Airlines has a new deal with its flight attendants – the details of which haven’t been released yet.
American’s proposal would give flight attendants immediate raises. They’ve been waiting for years. In Boston, first and second year flight attendants are eligible for food stamps. And it would let them come back to the table quickly to make sure they aren’t left behind.
The union rejects this approach, since it doesn’t make additional concessions on flight attendant scheduling and doesn’t offer retro pay as a signing bonus.
The National Mediation Board, though, isn’t releasing flight attendants to strike. They’ve been told they have to return to the bargaining table next month. Mediation is scheduled for April 9-11 and April 30 – May 2.
After those sessions flight attendants could ask to strike again. Then, once the National Mediation Board makes a decision, it would be at least 30 days before cabin crew could strike. And the union has previously told members they aren’t likely to engage in a full scale strike (flight attendants can’t afford to be without pay for a prolonged period). Instead, they would choose specific flights each day not to show up to work for, in order to create uncertainty for customers and encourage people to book away from the airline.
With union officers just re-elected, hopefully upcoming negotiations can be successful and give flight attendants a raise to offset the losses they’ve incurred due to inflation – while giving customers the certainty of avoiding a strike.
If American Airlines is serious about taking care of its flight attendants they should simply agree to match the pilot contract and pay scales.
Anything short of that and they are sending a message that the safety of their passengers is less important than the bottom line.
And let the flight attendant bashing commence! (Many of you do it so very well.)
IF the FAs agree to be meek and subservient , I suggest agreeing to the wage demands .
What’s to stop AA from dragging on negotiations after 2 years or when UA reaches an agreement?
No bashing, most if not all AA FA do an amazing job, as an AA Exc Plt family (my wife, I am just Plt Pro) and based out of PHX we fly AA exclusively and they provide us with great service. A few bad apples (DL and UA have them too you know), but 99.99% are great and go above and beyond. I think they should consider the 2 year deal and see where the industry goes. It always seems that long term contracts end up making people unhappy right after they sign (aka see the Pilots whining while making $200,000 up to $500,000 plus a year). The reliability is back, the service is back, the food (which is much better) is back, let’s get the smiles back and find the middle pay ground between the AA offer and the FA Union’s offer.
@sean M
I’ll bite. With this line of reasoning, who shouldn’t be paid at pilot salaries?
Flight attendants are an integral part of any airline but surely any level headed person can see that an FA requires no formal education and two months of training to be an FA.
Pilots at most mainline airlines require a college degree and years of pilot training and hours at personal expense even to just get to the regionals.
It’s a fantasy to try and compare the two. All parts of an airline are capable of keeping an airline safe without being paid the same.
Frankly, it can be argued easily that a mechanic or a ramp agent should always be paid more than an FA due to safety since their work on maintenance or even loading the aircraft properly for weight & balance is also very important. I’m not going to die on that hill but suggesting FAs should be paid the same as a pilot is just fantasy.
Of course FAs should get a new contract but comparing an FA to a pilot is just ludicrous.
At the end of the day, all of us choose who we work for and our available choices are due to previous life choices involving education and trade skills. It’s easy to cry about using a union to demand wages but the real world and FAs all have other options based on life choices and vocational skills they choose to utilize.
@sunviking82 – it’s more like 60/40 or 70/30 in terms of percentages doing an excellent job. Heck, I’ll give you 80/20. But plenty of AA’s FAs do not provide “great” service, but instead the bare minimum. It’s not most, but it’s not neglible either.
Give the least productive, laziest, most adversarial FAs in the industry (yes I said it) the highest pay. What could go wrong?
I hope APFA goes on strike. They deserve to have the protegy of Doug Steenland hire scabs who actually do their damn job.
@Plane Jane: You make some valid points, but you are grossly misunderstanding something. We are not, of course, asking for the same pay as pilots. We are asking for the same PERCENTAGE OF PAY INCREASE that pilots received. There is an enormous difference between the two.
Yeah, I’m sure the union is doing this for the first year flight attendants in Boston who are struggling. It’s all about the senior ones. They would throw the younger ones under the bus in seconds.
They are truly the most incredulous group of workers in any industry. Lazy, entitled, and ignorant. I say let them strike. Let them starve doing so. Find replacements. Force them out the door.
this proposal is simply an attempt by AA to appeal to a certain number of FAs that know they will not get retro and are losing money every month that this standoff continues.
UA might try to top what AA offers but they aren’t likely to top what DL offers in total including profit sharing pay because no airline NEEDS to pay its labor more than is necessary. The mere fact that AA, WN and UA all are less profitable than DL means that DL employees will get more profit sharing which means, all other things being equal, DL employees will make more.
Add in that nearly all of DL’s non-pilot employees don’t pay union dues and the compensation difference is significant.
Unions don’t want to cave to the reality that they can’t deliver any more than what non-union DL FAs get but that is the reality. Unlike pilots, there will be no retro so dragging the process out only hurts the members.
AA is in the driver’s seat on this one. APFA looks like amateurish and FAs will increasingly push back on being left worse off because of them
@Stuart YES EXACTLY.
The FAs with seniority get double the pay of the newbies, yet the union has never once offered to redistribute pay. I assure you the final contract will amount to pennies for the young and riches to the old
By SeanM standards, flight attendants should be paid more than the CEO because the CEO doesn’t directly deal with safety but a FA can. Also pay the surgery scrub tech more than the radiologist, who never sees the patient, just the MRI
A question for the flight attendants in this union is why is there so little participation in union votes? When the union I was in decided it was time to strike there was a very high participation rate with an authorization for the union leaders to decide when to start the strike if negotiations did not advance. We struck and had easier negotiations for decades afterwards along with reasonable concessions..
Gary Leff talks out of his ass . Many flight attendants think he is an asshole , and has no idea what he’s talking about. Since when have “ flight attendants not wanted boarding pay ?” … he’s always making up some sort of bullshit . He makes my stomach turn when I read his bs .
@derek @PlaneJane – you are making my point. The FAs are not as “valuable” to the company, not because of safety issues but rather because of commercial issues. That proves the point that the bottom line is more important, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary.
Both sides are guilty of posturing on this issue.
I’m making my own red buttons
Wayfarers
Are
Repulsed
Take it as you will.
Biden should force them to work like he did the rail workers!
ONCE AGAIN, YOUR INCORRECT!!
AA IS NOT OFFERING DELTA WAGES.
SOUTH WEST UNION AGREED TO PUT OUT A NEW TA. WHICH WILL BE VERY GOOD!
GREEDY AA PLAYING GAMES ONCE AGAIN!
LET NOT FORGET THE IMPACT OF AA STRIKE OF 93!
COMPLETE SHUTDOWN!
AA ON ITS KNEES!
ASK BOB CRANDALL!
SUMMER TRAVEL IS COMING.
DO YOU WANT TO TAKE CHANCES ON YOUR SUMMER VACATION PLANS?
I DONT!
ISSOM, BEWARE.
THINK TWICE!
@T – it’s not that *flight attendants don’t want boarding pay* it is that their unions haven’t prioritized it, preferring higher pay rates instead, since boarding pay benefits junior cabin crew more than senior crew.
Why would the flight attendants “agree to a 2 year deal and come back to the table”? The current contract renewal is taking 4-5 years and still no “deal”‘.
.
For sleeping in different hotel beds every night, starting $40/hr is beyond fair.
After 10yrs of serving drinks to receive just under $100/hr. Since when flight attendants get paid like models?!
Way past time to get off the “Boston food stamps” soap box!! That’s right up there with $100 per hour for sitting on a jump sheet and passing the time not on customer service but their own personal stuff!!
We still have unions in 2024?
Sometimes minimum wage is too much. AA, I’m speaking to you. There, I said it. Prove me wrong through better customer service.
One important thing all of you might be missing is flight attendants do not get paid 40 hours a week. They get paid by flight hours- a normal month of flying with out any overtime is only 78-80 hours for the entire month. So at 78.00 a hour that would be 6084.00 before taxes. That rate is only if you have 14 years or more. They do not get raises after 14 years. So a one year flight attendant only would make 2574.00 at 33.00 a hour for 78 hours a month.
No they are not pilots but they are one of the most important workers at an airline- they are the face of the airline and spend the most time with the customers. Why shouldn’t they get a better wage? Be fair.
Lord it gets old trying to get people to understand that a FAs hourly wage is NOT for a typical 40-hour work week. The average FA works about 75 hours PER MONTH. (Which at $40 per working hour is $36,000 per year.) We are not paid for all the time at the airport (even after we sign in for a trip), or of course boarding or deplaning. ONLY for the time the aircraft door is closed to reopening. Often we are on duty for 14-16 hours to get paid for 6 or 7. Literally That is hardly “model” pay. If people enjoy criticizing us so much (which is more than obvious), at least know the facts.
What the public often doesn’t understand is that these pay rates don’t translate to the normal 40hr work week. We often work 10-12 hour days and are “paid” for 5 or 6 etc. For instance as a flight attendant in my 11th year, I make $56/hr, and cleared roughly 48k last year. All that without getting to go home between shifts. We’re not asking for the moon, although it looks like a lot.
So after the flight attendants get what they want, service will improve right?
The problem for passengers is the seniority system. I fly international business class about every two months for leisure. Most of the FA’s on the international legs are so old they can barely get down the aisle. They go missing for most of the flight and when you see them, they are grumpy or mean. Perhaps the lack of any respect from AA contributes to their attitude, but frankly they should have left the business 20 years earlier.
I know that we can’t predicate their raises on customer satisfaction and as a passenger I don’t expect much improvement either way. We can only hope that better job satisfaction will improve customer satisfaction.
Before they negotiate a contract, they need to retire the aged and then see how that changes what the resultant fa’s really want.
If only the public understood the math. Flight attendants sign in an hour before flight and have to be on board 30 minutes before the flight starts boarding. Then there’s flight checks and a series of tasks that need to be done while passengers are boarding. So, while passengers are dillydallying around, trying to get seated, switching seats, creating confusion, going to the laboratories while boarding is taking place, meals are being counted, questions about connecting flights are being responded to etc etc All while not being paid until that boarding door closes. But yet the public has the audacity to complain about service. For the most junior flight attendants who are only being paid $30.15 per flight hr and as it was already said that is not at 40 hours per week. It is at 75 hours per month. I wish the public understood that those who do the show up and do their job actually love the work that they are doing because it is by no means for the salary.
@mark johnson
It’s got to be an AA thing. I quit flying them years ago after multiple events and I was 100% loyal to them. I switched to Delta (international) and Southwest (domestic). I fly ATL-HND three times a year usually on D-1. I chat up the FAs and purser since it’s over 14 hours. The lowest seniority I’ve found was 41 years. So far they’ve been great. Flew back when the big storm system was coming across the pacific in January. Plane was doing an unusual swaying and myself and several others were feeling a little queasy. They brought us cold cloths, ginger ale and checked on me every 15 minutes. Found me some different snacks since there was no way I was eating the meal. It was refreshing. I once asked for some water on AA to take some meds after a two hour delay and was basically I should have brought some with me. Probably should have but I wasn’t expecting to sit on the tarmac for hours either. (No this is not Tim Dunn, nor am I getting paid by him).
I just don’t understand why American crews want to make their contract my problem. They have every right to fair pay and collective bargaining. But when I see, “Ready to Strike!” on every uniform, it alienates me as a passenger. I don’t control American, contracts, or the APFA’s leadership.
I don’t need a flight attendant lecturing me about their lack of a contract, because I have no power to fix that. There is nothing I can do as a passenger other than be fearful of a strike.
We have unthinkable inequities in compensation for certain professions: flight attendants–like nurses and teachers–are stuck with a legacy of sexism and disrespect. Flight attendants have (in my opinion) a miserable job with diminishing benefits. They are first responders, capable of managing anything from a stroke to a bomb threat. It is absurdly unfair that they are paid so poorly while their coworkers in the flight deck and company management are compensated so generously.
I just have no power to fix that, and I want cabin crews to focus on safety-related duties above all else.
How many of the FA’s here didn’t know the pay scale, the hours, or that they wouldn’t go home every night when they aspired to seek out the training and take the job?
Then we have the FA’s so called union. Where is the fault in the fact that there is no contract? The union is feckless and we don’t hear the members getting up in arms and doing something about what they could actually have some control over? So, take some responsibility.
What does it tell everyone when the 12 months before covid, the flight experience was so bad that the american public was delighted that the airlines were suffering. Then the american taxpayers bailed out the airlines as the airlines continued to punish the passengers. Small wonder that the flying public isn’t sympathetic to their plight.
The thought that a FA should be paid the same as a pilot is ludicrous.
I am executive platinum, million miler, million miles in the bank, and just finished consuming the credits created during covid. The only thing remaining is to consume the miles and become independent. I currently only use AA to get to an airport with Asian airline departures. Ex Plat gets me into one world lounges which certainly outshine any admirals club I have visited.
AA policy is devastating the leisure travel experience with apparently zero remorse and 100% intent. Families stuck for days or weeks, GA’s enjoying the act of closing the door in front of people, FA’s militant attitude where one minute they are trying to screw the airline and the next minute they are trying to screw the passenger. FA’s upgrading their friends and family. etc etc. AA is a circus and the employee groups are the clowns.
“ @derek @PlaneJane – you are making my point. The FAs are not as “valuable” to the company, ”
Yeah, “SeanM”,
This seems to be a shock to you but you aren’t as valuable to the company as a pilot. If someone told you otherwise, they were delusional. If you believed them… it doesn’t reflect that well on you either.
Selection to be a mainline FA is tougher than Harvard in some years. I love my AA/DL/UA flight attendants (he’ll, my favorites are the senior ones that just love their people on board like so many of them do) but yeah… you could be replaced by someone with zero life experience in two months. Safety training for that person with zero experience would be the same as any FA flying today. A pilot cannot be replaced like that.
Sorry to bring the harsh reality. There is a pilot supply issue. There is no such issue with FAs. Any airline could replace their entire flight attendant group (assuming training could be done, which it can’t) in about three days with qualified applicants.
But again. Of course the FAs should get a good contract but talking about pilot pay and equating “safety” to it…? Come back to reality or you’re just going to be working for a carrier in chapter 7/11
@on the ine
“ If only the public understood the math. Flight attendants sign in an hour before flight and have to be on board 30 minutes before the flight starts boarding.”
And you didn’t look into this before you signed up? Then once you did know it you’ve stayed for how long? And… why hasn’t the aa union or AFA ever seriously negotiated for this in prior negotiations?
The only reason they want it now is because delta did something nice for their non union junior FAs though, in my opinion, paying this work at 50% would seem to be a cheap gimmick to any outside observer. The unions have been negotiating what they want for decades and it has never included boarding pay. Probably because boarding pay is just a cheap gimmick to lower block hour wages and pay them at 50% for a short period before flight.
And you’ll notice no pilot union demands boarding pay despite the enormous work they do pre Block Hour pay. Why? Because they aren’t looking at a shiny object delta dangled and forgetting decades of their own bargaining history. Love my FAs but this new found horror at the lack of boarding pay is so devoid of logic and the history of FA negotiations.
Hate to break the news to you Plane Jane, but you too can be replaced in a heart beat. It doesn’t matter what profession you’ve chosen or what industry you’re in, you’re replaceable. We all are.
Of course I can. Don’t think I ever suggested otherwise. And you don’t even know what I do
Your point is what?
To the arrogant intitled assholes who sit in first class and the it’s all about me attitude people who think they deserve more than what is normal make me sick! The flight attendants provide the service that AA tells them to
Provide! I have been on other airlines and they serve less than AA so I don’t know what they are winning about! People today are never satisfied no matter how much the flight attendants do for them! To say they need to be replaced is a kick in the face! AA is making billions of dollars and the paying their managers crazy money but tell the flight attendants they make too much! The public has no idea!! I’m sick of uncaring entitled passengers with no manners and not a clue! If AA is so bad fly on someone else!!!
I agree with TW 1000%, from the beginning they knew FA’s what they were getting into so stop winning and if you’re so unhappy with AA quit and go work somewhere else and stop treating passengers like crap. BTW they pay your salary for not doing much.
@ Plane Jane. Yep, the correct word is “delusional” and it definitely applies to those who think (probably the wrong word . . . more like “feel”) that a FAA licensed professional pilot can be replaced in the same amount of time as a cabin crewmember. The airplane can have every seat filled with the most senior FA’s and it won’t go anyplace until even the most junior (and lowest paid) pilot is doing his job. Must be magic that a freight hauler can move an airplane, occasionally with company pax onboard , without any flight attendants.
What is the worth of a flight attendant? Exactly what the union can negotiate.
I support American Airlines F/A team. I believe that they are not paid until the door closes. Also, food stamps, beyond pathetic.
Give them more money
AA Flight Attendants should be happy they have a job, no one is forcing them to stay, if they are unhappy then they are welcome to resign and try to find something better which suits them.
@Li Cristy, MD: Being a valued member of the medical profession, I am sure that you are more intelligent than your comment implies. Being grateful for having a job – and being treated fairly while performing that job – should not be mutually exclusive. Using your logic, whenever any worker is not happy with an element of their employment, it’s time to move on to another means of income. Should a hospital or HMO or whatever system you are actually paid by, for example, decide to limit your pay so that it does not even keep up with inflation, I’m sure that you would just say to yourself “That’s okay, I am just happy to be employed.” I’m sure it is the farthest thing from your mind to want to improve your situation. Though lousy flight attendants ARE THE ONLY ONES who are ever referred to on this blog, there are actually more of us out here who are professional, kind and respectful to passengers than are given credit. And we know our worth. After all, airlines cannot carry passengers without flight attendants. I am grateful to have my job, but I know that American Airlines can do a lot better at treating us well. And so we utilize the tools available to us to try to get that to happen. The next time you get a raise of some sort, or raise the fees you charge, I hope that you consider how grateful you should be to be in a position of receiving it or causing it to happen. And, I hope you treat those who make your job possible with more respect than that you are willing to give flight attendants.
Stop saying Delta started paying boarding pay voluntarily. Like they did it out of the kindness of their heart. They wanted to add more time to boarding for free. The flight attendants were not having it. If there wasn’t an active campaign to unionize the workforce, that would probably be the end of it, but there’s been a lot of pressure on the company and thankfully they have been generous with some pay raises and new benefits.
However, without a contract all that can go away, and most likely will if a vote for the union is defeated.
Maybe there could be a boarding pay tip jar with the contribution of $1 for each coach passenger, to be divvied up evenly between flight attendants (junior flight attendants get just as much as senior flight attendants and the purser unlike how the union makes contracts). On a full flight with the FAA mandated one flight attendant per every 50 passengers, that could add up to an extra $50 per flight attendant but would normally be somewhat less. For that, the passengers should be happy to get pleasant flight attendants. People in more expensive seats, whether paid or upgraded, could contribute $5. Pilots sitting in seats could contribute, too.
I have FA family, and they work hard for every penny. They truly put our safety first and train long and hard hours. Being paid from the minute passengers board would acknowledge how hard they work during the boarding process as well as during the flight.
I am still waiting for the AA Advantage credit card to post my Loyalty Points from March. I would appreciate it if you could address this issue in a future post.
Meanwhile, thank you for keeping us posted on the possibility of an AA strike. We want staff to get a fair deal, but we don’t want to suddenly have our scheduled flights cancelled. Thanks again and keep up the good work. And keep on carrying the a bag for your 5 year-old daughter. What happened to common sense? Safe travels, everyone —
As a flight attendant and a life long Union member, I’d suggest we are the only classification of non exempt employees in the US of A who are not paid for all hours worked and that need to be fixed now! And for job comparison, we are responsible for the safety of the passengers, we stop fights, put out fires, calm disgruntled peeps, and are trained in CPR, including using defibrillators. Maybe our negotiators should look at Emts pay, first responders, firefighter pay and contracts to justify a true increase in pay for the well deserving flight attendants.
Well Rick, be careful what you ask for. A firefighter in Oklahoma starts at $17.00 per hour. They also don’t get to go home every night. They also have emt and other training that you claim.
Most people agree that your plight should be fixed. How about getting some union representation that also agrees? Certainly, you are not the only non expert employees that are not paid for all of the hours worked and that stems from the definitions of ‘work’.
One of the biggest mistakes that I have observed in the FA ranks is their belief that if they treat the passenger badly enough that we will punish the airline, then somehow that will improve your lot. Instead, the flying public have disdain for both parties.
Get yourself a contract that you like. Get yourself representation that will work for you. Get yourself a better attitude about the flying public. (possibly not possible when dealing with the cattle class). Stop thinking that the passengers give a crap about your issues because we can’t fix any of them and we can’t smile while you are hiding in your cuddy cabin all night or busy on your phone pretending it isn’t safe to bring us a drink.
And most of all, quit thinking that you are the only class of employee that has it rough. I have more respect for the poor person that has to go into a hole to fix a water leak in the winter than almost any other job out there. If you find the solution for respect and compensation, pass that idea along to teachers, firefighters, etc so they can also make a living.
And make no mistake Rick, I am absolutely tired of getting 80 year old FA’s that have quit in place, or can’t even remotely do their job due to age or size. When I pay for first class, then I expect a first class FA which once again is driven by your inept union which demands that the seniors get my cabin and my flights. Wake up rich. you are fighting the wrong people.
Its amazing how so many people are going off half cooked and with no real knowledge of what they.are speaking about. I could address at least half of the comments to correct what was said. No one can justify not getting a raise for FIVE YEARS. That wasn’t part of the job description when FAs get hired. Only a total idiot would agree to go back to the table in 2 years to NEGOTIATE. AA would just drag it out for another 5 years and then FAs would be
even more behind in wages and cost of living. What they should say is take offer now and then when UA, SWor DL get raises they will match it immediately. But, AA is not sincere. IDK where equal pay to match pilots came from. If you want mandatory retirement for older FAs write your congressman and the FAA. IDK where the person got their info about the strike vote. Over 90% of the FAs voted yes to strike. But, you can not do that until the government says you can. Finally, Delta gives their NY based FAs a stipend of $200 or $300 bc of the cost of living there. So it’s not just AA.