Tag Archives for flight attendants.
United Airlines’ latest update to flight attendants makes the trade explicit: the union’s new pay proposal is “too expensive,” and anything better than the rejected deal will require offsets. United hints it can move on ground-time pay and shorter reserve windows—but only if flight attendants accept “algorithm scheduling” and reserve pay changes.
United flight attendants voted down a union-endorsed contract by 71% after five years without a raise—and now the union is demanding pay increases immediately, before a new deal is negotiated. United is pushing back, arguing that any added pay or “quality of life” improvements have to come as part of a full contract package with tradeoffs on work rules.
Two Pakistan International Airlines flight attendants assigned to PK840 (a Boeing 777 from Jeddah to Multan) got into a physical fight in the departure lounge before boarding. Video shows the two women locked up by the arms while a mustached airline official tries to separate them, with bystanders stepping in as they re-engage. The flight ultimately pushed back 2 hours and 19 minutes late, and both attendants were suspended.
A SkyWest labor battle just swerved into “computer fraud” territory. A federal judge let a conspiracy theory under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act move forward against AFA-CWA.
United flight attendants haven’t had a raise in five years, and 71% voted down a union-backed contract many saw as inadequate. Now, as talks resume, United is putting a major flashpoint back on the table: algorithm-assigned work schedules that replace traditional trip picking with “preference bidding,” a system crews say is opaque and strips them of control.
A Delta passenger boarded his Las Vegas flight handing out $100 bills and Ghirardelli candy to the crew — all while filming himself for social media. The internet loved the generosity but hated the performance, and this raises a better question: how should you actually thank flight attendants without crossing lines or creating ethics problems?
An American Airlines passenger on a five hour Airbus A321neo flight showed up in row 37 with AirPods Max for every flight attendant and pilot, and wound up in first class after a passenger up front insisted on trading seats with him. Most people see it as heartwarming holiday gratitude for crew, but others question whether a filmed, high-dollar gift like this crosses the line into performative tipping and bribery-adjacent special treatment.
Flight attendants are sharing the funniest, cringiest, and most inappropriate pickup lines passengers actually try on them. A few of the lines surprisingly worked — but many crossed the line into awkward, gross, or outright harassment.
The head of the largest flight attendants union, Sara Nelson, says you should never press the flight attendant call button for a drink, and even tried to get the government to ban alcohol on planes which would reduce the amount of service her members would have to provide.
This is 100% wrong.
Aeroflot low cost carrier Pobeda ran one of the strangest in-cabin experiments we’ve seen: a humanoid robot acting as a flight attendant on a regular passenger flight. The airline had “Volodya” work on a Boeing 737 flight from Ulyanovsk to Moscow.
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 »
