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?
Canada is full of jerks and hateful people. Americans think Canadians are similar and their friends. They are not. Canadians also rip each other off a lot. Canadians is only a bit better than Putin. Canadians are ruthless.
@derek — Yeah, everywhere has jerks, but attacking Canada in-particular is not cool. Canadians are most certainly not murderous dictator war-criminals. I’ll assume you’re just trolling.
@Kimmiea, they are not being paid less than minimum wage, not even close. The claim about minimum wage compared the monthly pay for federal workers who put in 160 hours per month to flight attendants who put in 75 hours per month. AC has offered roughly $28 per hour, federal minimum wage is $17.75. the fact that flight attendants who work 75 hours per month, less than 20 hours per week, are considered full time and receive full benefits is something that only exists in the airline industry. Not even government bureaucrats are considered full time at 17 and a half hours a week
@1990 my opinion on Canada is made up solely based on my experience with Canada Geese.
I’m guessing Canadians are not friendly people.
@IsaacM — Those birds are no joke…hissing, leaving behind green turds, painting the sidewalk. Could use a good rain!
The smoke hasn’t been as bad this year in NYC, but saw MSP, ORD, etc. got pretty bad. Two years ago, the sky turned orange here, so could be worse. Visited Toronto in June and it was quite hazy. I don’t blame either country; Canada just has a lot more ‘fuel’ to burn with all their trees and wilderness. At least everyone’s firefighters still cross borders to help each other when in-need. Even Greece and Turkey put aside their differences to help with fires there.
The travel embargo also affects other airline staff wanting to fly on Air Canada.
“Due to Labour Disruptions travel is not permitted for the following nine (9) days, until Aug. 22.
Note – For employees who started a trip prior to August 13th, we will allow employees with an existing booking for travel to attempt to return to their home.”
This is normal during a strike or an impending strike – I think WestJet did the same thing.
@1990 yeah Minneapolis area has been hit bad by the Canada smoke.
It was non stop, every other week or so. Luckily I was out of the country for one week when it was especially bad and Minneapolis had the worst air quality in the world.
I was in India but not New Delhi so the air was rather pleasant.
Why is it people do not hesitate to publicly reveal their ignorance??
Non-rev travel means STANDBY. And that means AFTER all revenue pax have a seat.
Some employees including retirees EARNED with years of service POSITIVE SPACE award passes. The use of those passes has also been modified by AC.
Comparisons with minimum wage…..75 hours is measured from wheels unlocked until again locked at the gate. FA’s at AC must check-in at least 1 hr 15 before scheduled departure for an International ✈️ ght. Waiting for the inbound flight? No pay! Boarding and dealing with hundreds of pax jostling for luggage space? No pay! Upon arrival at destination parked waiting for a gate? No pay! Deplaning those hundreds of pax? No pay!
Those 75 hours “minimum” equate to about double actually engaged to the benefit of the employer.
Shall we talk about employee in-flight hazards such as the FA doused with urine by an elderly DEL pax or the deadheading FA who recently helped rescue pax after a horrific “incident” and resulting fireball?
As “they” say…..walk a mile in my shoes!!
@Peter
And for those 75 hours, what is the hourly pay rate?
@IsaacM — I was gonna say, you’d’ve gone from one air quality concern to another. Hopefully you were further south, like Kerala, where I believe they have better conditions (nice to have the ocean breeze). As for the north, the times I’ve been in Delhi over late fall/winter months were brutal (that smog can be very thick).