The United Airlines flight attendant contract that the union negotiated may already be in trouble. Online chatter is heavily negative. The AFA-CWA had promised that, after five years without a raise, their members would get industry-leading pay. Instead they’re getting pay comparable to Delta, and more or less an inflation-adjustment. The average increase in the contract is 26.9%, against inflation since last raise of 24%.

AFA-CWA had gotten flight attendants excited about the prospect of getting more than just ‘boarding pay’ (matching what non-union Delta first introduced) but pay for all ground time – the time not just on the plane, but sitting in the airport. That’s nowhere to be found in the contract. Some of what they do get, though, includes:

• Retro pay: they get cash for the previous years where they worked for less
  
• Boarding pay: copying non-union Delta, which American then copied, crew will get paid for time in the aircraft prior to pushback
  
• Better life on the road: Better per diem, layover hotels and inflight meals plus adding Halloween as a recognized holiday.

However specific, apocalyptic concerns over what the union negotiated are beginning to spread wildly. Frankly, some of the concerns seem baseless to me. So the future of the contract – whether flight attendants vote to ratify it or not – likely hinges on how well the union communicates with its members, and how much flight attendants trust the union. They need to quell these concerns quickly.

As aviation watchdog JonNYC notes:

UA AFA TA full language now is available to members "and so far from what I heard feedbacks are pretty negative. People saying too many loopholes and under company’s discretion"

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) June 10, 2025

Here are the broad categories of concern I’m seeing and hearing about. Some of it is legitimate, while much of it is misplaced or a misunderstanding of how contracts work under the Railway Labor Act.

• Scope & Job Security: New codeshare/joint venture language and temporary assignments could erode protected flying and seniority.
  I don’t see this as a risk. United participates in codeshares and joint ventures today. Flight attendants can lean on pilot scope to protect them from outsourcing.

• Classification & Duties: Hybrid roles and ad-hoc purser/trainers may mean more work without override pay.
  This could be a give-back if an accurate read of the contract, unless a side-letter restores the override.

• Scheduling, Reassignment & Hours of Service: Anticipated block legality and “operational necessity” reroutes weaken pay-protection and stretch reserves.
  The concern is overstated about looking to anticipated block time, since FAA rules look at scheduled time for crew legality. However, re-routes would be a big deal if pay-protection now requires finishing the pairing and no longer compensates for time lost.

• Compensation & Incentives requiring 85 hour thresholds for bonuses is worrying flight attendants.
  This is mostly routine in the industry. flight attendants who routinely drop time can forfeit incentives but that’s a choice.

• Expenses & Reimbursements: Digital-only submission with tight deadlines risks denied claims if tech fails.
  They are actually complaining about submitting receipts electronically instead of paper. This is not an economic take-away.

• Vacation & Leave: Added holiday blackouts and vendor-managed leaves can bypass seniority and delay approvals.
  Blackout dates for vacation seem like a significant erosion. Outsourced processing of leaves could be a hassle if the vendor is worse than United in-house.

• Training: “Voluntary” modules encourage unpaid work.
  Airlines don’t generally pay for non-regulatory e-learning though?

• Furlough & Recall: E-mail-only recall could penalize those who miss a message.
  Missing an e-mail isn’t going to cost anyone return from furlough – recall rights will generally persist until a flight attendant affirmatively declines.

• Grievance & Discipline: Informal notes could count toward discipline but can’t be grieved.
  If this informal ‘coaching’ is used to build a disciplinary record then it would be a due process downgrade.

• Emergency & Duration Clauses: United can re-open the contract for economic hardship in an emergency. That means flight attendants could see lower pay than what’s in the contract.
  That’s just a misunderstanding. Under the Railway Labor Act, status quo pay and work rules prevail until both sides agree to a change or the National Mediation Board releases them to self-help.

There’s concern about flight attendants being liable for tech failures and not responding to the company when called, but all airlines require crew to monitor their apps. Actual discipline requires just cause. Assigning purser duties without purser pay is problematic.

It ultimately strikes me that when a key complaint is electronic submission of receipts for reimbursement, that opponents of the deal aren’t being intellectually honest. They’re going through the contract looking for problems that aren’t really there. When the reality is that flight attendants should be most disappointed by the pay provisions. Though it’s likely the economic deal they could realistically expect, it’s not what the union led them to believe for years that they’d get.