American Airlines Pilot Posted His Pay: $35,000 Every Two Weeks—Here’s How The Math Works [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • The myriad pay lines for an American Airlines pilot – here’s how the pay really works and breaks down.

  • Life lesson, children: don’t buy cocaine on the casino floor of the Wynn.

  • In the past I’ve written about the UFO theory that they visit us (why should this much more technologically advanced society care about Earth, per se) because they are from here, but from the future. Defense technology CEO Palmer Luckey, who’ll have had access to classified information I never will, waives his hand at this suggesting that “the physics just don’t seem to work out” then claims they’re from the past.

  • Stop complaining about airfares, you’re getting a deal! (Even if the cheapest American Airlines fares no longer earn miles, and this change was made without notice.)

  • Filthadelphia

  • People need to be rescued from elevators at the airport more than anywhere else in Austin

  • A 26 year old got 20 months in jail for an attempted, crime syndicate-financed theft targeting business class passengers on Singapore Airlines. He pulled a passenger’s carry-on from the overhead while the cabin was dimmed and crew were in the galley. The victim’s wife spotted it, confronted him, and crew intervened. The bag reportedly contained >S$100,000 in valuables (cash, laptop, cigars, and two high-end watches).

  • The decline in international passenger traffic is clearly not because of Spirit Airlines cutbacks.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. >Airline fares decreased 5.4 percent over the year ending November 2025

    Not on Southwest. Their fares are way up. Loads seem to be way down. Investors seem happy with the results. Go figure.

  3. When I said “death to so-called influencers, I didn’t mean this.
    Anyone who believes we are being visited by those from another planet are idiots.

  5. Good for that pilot. But this is an outlier. We should be advocating for better pay, benefits, and protections for all workers in this industry, from first officers to flight attendants and dispatchers to ground crew and gate agents to customer service agents and maintenance technicians to baggage handlers and air traffic controllers to FAA staff. Everyone deserves not just a living wage but a thriving one.

  6. I’m kinda shocked that many ppl get stuck in elevators. With that being said, I’ve been stuck twice (both at colleges) so I really shouldn’t be surprised!

  7. All US economic data published by a government entity or based upon data published by a government entity is now fake. How convenient that airfares are supposedly down sharply when it is a big-ticket item in our fake inflation data

  8. No, I don’t think the traffic decline at LAS is because of Spirit cutbacks…I think the cutbacks are essentially a symptom.

    Come to think of it, I wonder how much of WN’s trouble leading to the overhaul might be down to Las Vegas’s troubles. Southwest and Spirit are like 55% of the traffic at LAS and LAS is 15% of Southwest’s traffic and 20% of Spirit’s. A 10% tank at LAS would make a significant dent in their load factors.

  9. @Gene — Yeah, ‘cooking the books’ is one thing when it’s a company; it’s another thing entirely when it’s the country, especially one as dominant as ours; like, there are global economic implications for the games that are being played (as with the haphazard and likely illegal tariffs, literally). Not sure how we dig ourselves out of this mess, other than to impeach and remove the traitor and his enablers, like South Korea, Brazil, and others have shown is possible, legally and non-violently. Gonna take a lot of effort to rebuild trust at-home and abroad; perhaps, if we can stop this sooner than later, it may only take a generation. I envy those who are on their way out and will not have to pay this price like the young will. *deep sigh*

  10. This is entirely contractual, repeatable, and common among senior captains flying premium schedules. This isn’t lottery money or a one-time bonus, it’s exactly how airline pilot pay works at the top of the seniority list. Also, any complete raging imbecile who tries to lump airline pilots together with ATC and FAA staff shows a basic misunderstanding of the industry. Pilots are airline employees under private labor contracts. ATC and FAA staff are government employees under civil service rules. They are not paid, negotiated, or governed the same way at all.

  11. No one forced the ” influencer” to take the drugs. 99.99% of those using drugs do it of their own will.
    Blaming the people who make the drugs is useless.

  12. If you want to see how much American pilots get paid go to this channel on YouTube: Darren Byrd -Geek On The Flight Deck LLC

    He posts a video for most of his flights. He goes into details how much he gets paid down to the point of how much the airline puts into his 401k

  13. The influencer story brings joy to my heart on this holiday. God’s gift to mankind, thinning the heard of idiots.

  15. He’s earned $458k through 12/1/25. That’s over 47 weeks so averages $19.5 k every two weeks. He might had had an exceptional 2 weeks where he earned $35k but that’s not his average.

  16. “Everyone deserves not just a living wage but a thriving one.”

    No, they don’t! They deserve to be paid commensurate with the value/profit they provide for their employer. You should have learned that in Basic Economics.

  17. Good for him. He deserves to be paid that well, considering what his job is and the lifestyle he leads.

Comments are closed.