Flight attendants at American Airlines are furious as $150 profit sharing gets announced – while cabin crew at Delta get four weeks of pay – as many are stuck sleeping in airports, stranded during the winter storm meltdown of operations.
American Airlines did essentially didn’t make any money in 2025. While they earned just over $100 million, it was a 0.002% margin. So there’s not much profit to share.
While Delta announced $1.3 billion in profit sharing – and this was lower than it has been – that’s still 8.9% of pay (or about four weeks of extra pay). And United’s profit sharing comes out to 4.5% of wages. Their profit sharing formula is lower than Delta’s.
American has agreed to contracts that largely pay out profit sharing like Delta does, but they have more employees to generate that profit and less profit. So profit sharing amounts to 0.3% of wages. A $50,000 employee gets $150. As shared by aviation watchdog JonNYC:
AA: I expect unhappiness from this pic.twitter.com/2o1rS2bf94
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) January 27, 2026
Flight attendants are furious. After all they won increased profit sharing in their 2024 contract! In their previous agreement they eschewed profit sharing in favor of higher wages for precisely this reason, but that turned out to be unprofitable as they eyed enviously at non-union Delta. Of course, former CEO Doug Parker said that flight attendants shouldn’t receive profit-sharing at all because they don’t influence profit.
Meanwhile, with the operational meltdown from this week’s winter storm, flight crews are reportedly stuck sleeping in airports as cancellations overwhelm the hotel/limo desk and available rooms.
"had two friends i know of sleep in airport floors last night after being on hold with crew scheduling for hotels for over 8+ hours. one in ORD (a hub) and one in FLL (a satellite base) insanity and they should be ashamed. i know one of my friends was in tears after 12 years…
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) January 27, 2026
THe flight attendants union said flight attendants were stuck sleeping at airports over the summer. In 2021 American flight attendants were stuck sleeping in airports and again in 2022. This happens during irregular operations – usually bad weather – but the airline is supposed to staff up to ensure rooms are made available to their employees.
There’s an app they can use to book a room instead of calling, and when they can’t get a room through the vendor they can book themselves and get reimbursed later (provided they have a credit card). They shouldn’t have to do this, but there are self-serve approaches available. And crew are fearful of booking their own accommodations because they worry they won’t be paid back.
American has said that their outsourced vendor for this has staffed up its call center though clearly not enough.
They also promised that their own employees would back up the hotel and limo desk, too, to make sure flight attendants could get help. They were also supposed to pre-purchase extra rooms at hubs and heavy layover cities, willing to eat he cost of unused rooms, to make sure they had a place for flight attendants to sleep.
Basic economics. All the big airlines have basically the same PS formula. Problem is AA just isn’t nearly as profitable as the others.
So the flight attendants got exactly what they and their union negotiated for and exactly what that approved formula produced based on their production for the year. And they’re pissed about it. Makes absolutely no sense.
@Coffee Please — That’s a based take; I was fully expecting union-bashing, like @Ben with the cheap shot below you. Perhaps, instead, CEOs don’t deserve $34 million in compensation (like Isom got in 2023).
For the flight attendants:
1. Provide a better experience so that people like me actually WANT to purchase premium fares on your airline.
2. Enjoy your share of the profits.
First, I’m actually surprised that AA had any profit sharing to share for 2025.
Second, if Flight Attendants expected something more significant then they have no idea how their company runs. Perhaps the FAs could start submitting some suggestions as to how to make their airline more profitable?
Eh sleeping on the ground. Slept in the dirt for years on end with Afghan and Iraq while I was in the Marines.
To specifically give up more in raises for more in profit sharing then getting royally screwed. Strike, find another job at another airline. While American’s miserable executive staff rakes it in you get zero for enabling it for them.
These aren’t the slave days people. Ford has 6,000 jobs paying over 100k each..why because they are a miserable employer.
Hard to have a lot of sympathy for the fa’s here. AA’s Q4 profit took a big hit from the government shutdown affecting their large DCA operation. The airline expects to be significantly more profitable in 2026, but airline earnings are always volatile. Even without ANY profit sharing, I would submit they are more than reasonably paid for the work they do.
Is there some reason why Citi is not building lounges in LAX, ORD and JFK/LGA? Drive some premium customers to AA through the Strata Elite, etc. Not going to overtake what DL/Amex have done, but it’s not like Chase, C1 have such an insurmountable lead with their lounges. Just products with Citi/AA that both feel like they’re barely in first gear.
@1990 is @Ben actually union bashing, or is he stating the obvious? The FAs did in fact negotiate for and vote to approve said contract. All US airlines exist in the same economic conditions. If I were the AA FAs I’d be asking why AA is struggling to earn a profit while DL and UA are leaving AA in the dust.
There is a huge calculus involved in determining the root causes. The FA union can either be a partner to address the underlying issues or they can cry their crocodile tears that their negotiations didn’t deliver what they wanted. That’s on them.
While I agree the CEO doesn’t deserve the $34 million. Even if you took every dime away from him, that would only result in an extra $250 per employee. While it’s a nice symbolic gesture, it still falls way, way short of what the folks at DL and UA are getting. We can make a point, or we can make sure CEOs like Isom earn their pay.
@Parker — This isn’t about dividing up Isom’s pay; it’s about creating the right incentives. Management isn’t leading here. Ironically, there seems to always be ample funds for C-suite and shareholders, but not workers. Can Isom operate the airline on his own? Is he a pilot and mechanic? Will those shareholders show up to handle the bags? Anything is possible, I guess…
As a group, they are a big reason American has morphed into the service /profit mess they are in.Yet , they want to be financially rewarded. Oh yes, the individual hotel expense is no doubt for commuters who elected to not live in their domiciles for their own convivence. Spare the tears!!
That is so sad. United pulled the same crap on there flight attendants which is so criminal of them. Bunch of crooks they are!
Thisnisnsimply an outcome of both staff and management of AA making so many bad choices. AA says it competes with Spirit. They said in imvestor meetings that they want to make the experience uncomfortable so people buy up. No wonder saavy travelers dont book them. United added IFE, powerports and internet. Aa tightened pitch, removed IFE made the most aubpar F class cabin and wonders why it lags in profitability. Its FAs with uneven and unreliable service, poor attitudes are finally seeing that their cryd service means crud profit sharing. I have 2 million miles and lifetime status and will never go back. Dl, UA, AS and B6 all offer superior service, calue and experiences. Good riddance to Americas most subpar abominable major airline.
Parker
just a note that AA execs pointed out on the earnings call that 80% of UA employees are not based industry average rates and benefits.
UA has a bill to pay and it is fighting its strategic battles on the backs of its employees.
AA employees, for all practical purposes, do not get profit sharing but they do make more than UA employees right now.
and both trail DL employees who deliver higher quality service and revenue to the company. DL has a smaller workforce than AA or UA due to better efficiencies which means that DL employees generate more revenue per employee than any US airline and probably any airline on earth.
DL manages its business better than any other airline but also is able to pay its people better.
… are not being PAID industry average wages and benefits.
@Tim Dunn — And so… Tim… why is it that Delta is ‘better’? Succinctly, please. It cannot be because they’ve bashed their unions (Delta’s pilots and dispatchers remain organized). Is it the state of Georgia? The partnership with American Express? Load factor…
The employee didn’t make bad, short sighted decisions. The employees didn’t buy back stock instead of investing in the business. The employees didn’t decide to be a slightly better Frontier Airlines.
As far as sleeping in an airport likely there were no local hotels. Could AA have chartered a van and had crews stay in hotels away from the airport? Possibly. Probably more relevant is AA hasn’t invested in handling extreme irregular operations so it turns into a total cluster.
Oh Lord, here we go again. DL is amazing, DL walks on water, DL cures leprosy. Sorry @Tim Dunn but I’ll believe what I am seeing with my own eyes. If the ONLY metric you use is financial performance, then I suppose DL is doing fine. If you look at other metrics (including the metric of personal opinion) DL is floundering and quickly losing ground. Poor and worsening operational performance (at least in the hubs I use), worsening cancellation rates, prolonged recovery from IRROPS due to pilot scheduling. It’s lovely that DL makes money, but they are a shell of who they were before the pandemic.
@1990, The issue with attacking executive pay is that it doesn’t solve the root causes of where AA find itself. This is not a compensation issue. The compensation is warranted IF the executive team is delivering results. One can look at it as “the executive is being paid too much,” or, “the executive is not earning what we are paying them.” One places blame on the pay and the other on the performance. I’m suspecting we are staying the same thing when it comes to Isom. He’s not delivering.
Personally, I don’t think $34 million is too much pay an executive to lead a team of 130,000 people conducting business in over 60 countries in an industry where errors cost lives. But if you are making $34 million a year you better be able to deliver…and Isom is not delivering.
Parker,
while it is fair to note that the positive gap between DL and other airlines has shrunk, DL is certainly not floundering by any objective measure or combination of measures.
Operationally, WN is the most improved but they have, yet, to provide evidence that it is helping them financially.
AA is generally lower tier operationally and financially while UA is very much a mixed bag.
and 1990, the simple reason for DL’s financial success – which it shares w/ its employees – is because DL generates more profit not just from transportation – far more efficiently than UA – but also all of the non-transportation revenue including credit cards/loyalty and the growing engine overhaul business.
DL understands that if employees get a big enough benefit from profit sharing, they are motivated to do what helps the company.
AA “likes” the idea but can’t motivate employees w/ fractions of a percent in profit sharing.
UA has underpaid its employees for years and offers better profit sharing than AA (or WN) but none come close to DL’s level of profits or profit sharing.
and based on the Chicago shootout , there is little change that AA or UA will challenge DL any time soon. WN is most likely to add financially to its operational improvements.
@Tim Dunn — Ah, so Amex. Got it. Feels about right. United with Chase. Meh. American with Citi. Eww. Credit cards with wings!
I also have lifetime status at AA but have not used them for decades. Never able to use my upgrades in the past, I think I exchanged them for a piddy # of miles. I wasn’t paying attention & let my SO’s 100K+ AA miles expire! So buying overpriced junk would have been better than 0c/mile value of expiration. AA wanted over $1k to reinstate — uh, no thank you.
Just to clarify, all AA employees are getting the same dismal payout. Not just FA’s but customer service and ramp agents. All the employees that sell tickets, check bags and sell seat upgrades. Not sure how management. Plans to motivate employees to push for upgrades without any tangible benefits. They want a premium airline, but employees can earn more money working the fry station at a fast food resturaunt.
I am wondering what the justification for a union is when American is getting a .3 profit sharing payout, and United FA’s haven’t gotten a raise in 5 or 6 years now. All the major airlines unions have had contract negotiations that went on 4 or more years this time. I just dont see any meaningful positive that is worth all of that hassle and money going to unions from the pockets of employees. The employees are paying the unions for a service that I just dont see materializing in any meaningful or timely way.
Its tacky that Isom stayed at the company owned hotel on campus Monday night but all operations critical employees (IOC and DFW) were told to checkout of their OFF CAMPUS hotels on Sunday at noon.