Tag Archives for flight attendants.
Southwest Airlines has banned its employees from using smart glasses and other wearable devices capable of recording during work hours, citing safety, privacy, and legal responsibilities—though the policy doesn’t apply to passengers.
United flight attendants, who haven’t seen a pay raise in five years, are being promised a potential breakthrough deal this March—but the airline says they’ll need to accept tradeoffs on scheduling, and unpaid leave to get it done.
Southwest flight attendants have voted down higher union dues three times, but the proposal is back for a fourth try. This time, the union is limiting ballots to in-person meetings, turning a $5-a-month ask into a fight over turnout, process, peer pressure and whether “no” actually means no.
In a blunt internal message to employees, United Airlines says it has offered flight attendants the highest pay rates in the industry, but claims union leaders are refusing to agree to the needed tradeoffs. After five years without raises, here’s what’s holding up a deal.
After 71% of United Airlines flight attendants rejected their latest contract offer, the airline is back with a controversial demand—PBS scheduling could fundamentally change what trips flight attendants work.
American Airlines flight attendants called for the ouster of its CEO in a new letter on Tuesday. The airline’s operations have been melting down for days, with significant consequences to flight attendants. But the union’s focus is on the poor financial performance of the airline – and what that means for profit sharing. They complain about “a pattern of failure under the leadership of CEO Robert Isom” and call for “new leadership.”
American’s winter-storm disruption has turned into something worse than weather: nearly 10,000 cancellations and reports that the airline has effectively lost track of crews, leaving flights short of pilots or flight attendants even when aircraft are ready to go. As scheduling and hotel support break down, flight attendants describe being stranded for days—some sleeping on airport floors—while the system struggles to pair rested crews with departures.
Philippine Airlines flight PR113 from Los Angeles to Manila faced a mid-Pacific lavatory failure—and while the airline says it prepared for a possible diversion to Guam, crew onboard tells a different story. Flight attendants reportedly were instructed to manually handle human waste, disposing of it by hand, rather than divert the Boeing 777.
American flight attendants are furious after learning their 2025 profit sharing works out to just 0.3%—about $150 for a $50,000 employee—while Delta crews are getting roughly four weeks of pay. The timing is brutal: as winter-storm cancellations overwhelm hotel/limo operations, crews are reporting they’re stuck sleeping in airports because they can’t secure rooms.
Southwest is being sued by a former flight attendant who says the airline did not pay overtime required under Illinois law because its pay system focuses on flight time, not total duty time. Southwest argues the claim cannot proceed in court because flight attendants are unionized and the dispute belongs under the Railway Labor Act framework.
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 »
