Junior flight attendants often qualify for food stamps, while the most senior ones can work exhausting hours and turn the role into a six figure job – for as long as they can hold up.
The job of flight attendant is hard.
- You don’t get a consistent schedule and can’t plan a life around the job.
- Your schedule isn’t guaranteed with bad weather and cancellations.
- Most work trips aren’t glamorous and the pay at most airlines isn’t great.
- You deal with some real schmucks as passengers.
Junior crew are paid very poorly, and live off first class snacks. American Airlines Boston flight attendants can qualify for food stamps their first two years on the job.
However senior flight attendants are paid much better. At American, the last increase they got was in 2019 and a flight attendant with 15 years of seniority made $68 per hour (while only racking up 70-80 hours per month, though union officers get 115 hours of trip removal pay and can work beyond this).
In 2019, the fifth most senior flight attendant at Delta claimed to be bringing in $250,000 per year. She said she was fired for stealing milk – and that Delta just wanted her off the payroll. I was never quite able to make the math work on her pay, even with premium pay for picking up extra time over important holidays.
However, over at United Airlines there is no contractual maximum number of duty hours in a month (beyond FAA required rest). So it is possible for a flight attendant with seniority to make six figures.
One United crewmember reports earning $9,000 in a month, which annualizes to $108,000.
Close to 9,000 (Dollars). I about died doing that to myself. I’ll wait for a contract raise before attempting that again
Most won’t be able to work that many hours. They won’t get that many trips. And working 120 or more hours in a month of flight time is a lot more when you count boarding and deplaning and time in the airport (although working long haul helps, since those are less as a percentage of total time worked). Those who do work those hours will find it genuinely exhausting, especially across time zones. And it’s tough to align given required rest.
Delta Air Lines flight attendants currently earn more than peers at United and American. Indeed, after years of negotiations American Airlines is offering to bring cabin crew pay up to Delta levels while United’s flight attendants union wants their members paid for time spent at the airport.
It’s rough to start as a flight attendant. At American, the union has proposed making all new hires work reserve for a couple of years before actually getting a flight schedule, so that more senior crew don’t have to work reserve. The point of the union is as much to redistribute income from junior employees to senior ones as to raise total compensation.
This is just wrong..shame on the airlines
Yawn. They’re not even worth minimum wage.
Someone I flew with last year made just over $225,000 in the previous 12 months. They were junior to me. All of their days off were spent on layovers and just a few at home every month. I would be dead because my family would kill me if I was gone that much!! I have family/friends that work 80 hour weeks in other professions and make good money. I’m tired just thinking about it!
@Walter – You are the schmuck referenced in the article. Just an FYI.
As long as at least 24 hrs off every 7 days, one can work as much as they want. I bring in 175k a year. I do live local and mostly do 8 to 10 hr one day trips. Many people who live local do this. I usually work in the front which makes things less stressful. I enjoy my job and my passengers and coworkers, but not everyone can work this amount.
If they work as a server in a high-end pricey restaurant, they can easily make over $100k/year thanks to tips (ok so what’s officially reported to Uncle Sam may be under $100k but at the end of the day they still earn over $100k in their pockets.)
No sky waitress is worth anywhere close to $100,000 a year. Give me a break. BTW, need to find a way to get rid of some of the old senior FAs, give younger ones a chance and also revise the pay scale to help younger workers. Of course the union and established FAs don’t care since they got theirs – so Fing sad.
@ Retired Gambler — Were you born a jerk? Why can’t you respect someone who works hard and earns a good living? Sad.
Ever heard of age discrimination?
F/A jobs are all based on senority. New F/As are all hoping to get to be senior. It’s a rough job for them but they are all aware of the pay when they start. It’s been this way for 40+ years. Solution – no clue.
Good for them.
Worth a 100k a lot more than some useless middle manager.
I’ve been an FA at United for 8 years – I’ve seen multiple pay stubs with yearly earnings above 180k. You’re wrong about working long hauls. Almost exclusively top earners work high time “turns”. EWR-LAX then LAX-EWR in the same day. It removes the exhaustion of sleeping in different time zones, long airport sits etc.. Doing an 11 hour turn 20 days a month gives you about 14500 pre tax income with 10 days off a month. It’s not that bad.
@ Retired Gambler – FAs work hard for their money. When pilots are making 400-500k, it’s sickening that FAs are making almost nothing. And don’t start with how important pilots are, I get it, but that’s a huge pay difference.
AinthePNW – work hard? On their knees maybe.
It’s ludicrous to compare a talking coke machines ‘skills’ to those of a pilot. Get a grip. “Pay difference”? Get off your ass, get a better education and job. Your income is not remotely related to someone else’s.
I’ve been a flight attendant for 10 years..Some things you got wrong –
The schedule is the best part. You have complete flexibility to work 0 hours a month or 150+
Any flight cancellation guarantees you the pay for that trip regardless of actual hours flown. It’s in the contract.
Long haul flight aren’t the most lucrative.. high time 1 day trips will consistently earn the most hours per month. You can work 150+ hours and still get 15 plus days off a month.
@ AinthePNW — Walter probably also believes that he is entitled to pay no taxes. Dump that Coke in his lap, please.
The disdain that some people have for the people that serve their slovenly selves is disgusting. STOP FLYING IF THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS BOTHER YOU SO MUCH A**h***!
Walter, isn’t it lockdown time for the night or does your prison have different rules?
Retired Gambler, well aren’t you just a sweetheart. Your Mom must be very proud.
As in almost every position in a free market, they are worth what they’re being paid. Oh wait, they aren’t in a free market. Therefore, their wage is skewed either higher or lower due to government regulations and the requirement to join an anti-freedom union. Get rid of both and their wages will gravitate towards their true worth.
People upset over others compensation, are, in my experience, almost uniformly egotistical midwits that have achieved very little in life.
Congrats to those putting in these hours to earn this comp.
Walter and Retired Gambler are just 2 examples of the millions of schmucks flight attendants deal with annually . Part of being a safety professional includes and requires the knowledge and skills of a Psychiatrist, Psychologist or therapist.
It’s obvious by your ignorant comments that those working the flights that either of you fly clearly have the knowledge and skills to keep you quiet and in your seat for your trip . It’s true that both of you schmucks must…MUST do what all flight attendants say . They do control you schmucks ..HMMM?? Being controlled by a ” talking coke machine ” or by someone ” not even worth making minimum wage ” , yet they can make the 6 digit figure by keeping you both compliant .
BTW ??? What does a top dollar Psychiatrist , therapist or Psychologist make annually ?? These professionals try to guide those in life when they are in a stressful time .That’s right … in the neighborhood of another 6 figure salary !!
Robb,
A Psychiatrist, Therapist or a Psychologist are required to gave years of formal higher education. You, are barely required to have a GED.
The low end of six-figure US$ incomes in the US are worth far less than they used to be 4-25 years ago. A $100k annual salary in 1999 had far more travel purchasing power then than it does now.
For what it’s worth, 5 billion people have less purchasing power today than they had in January 2020. Meanwhile the world’s billionaires are at least 25+% better off today than they were in January 2020. Most everyone else in between the poorest 5 billion and the wealthiest 100 million people in the world has been flat at best.
CHRIS, many of us have degrees and other careers, as well as our flying. It makes an interesting life and we like it that way. Have a great day!
@Flyer1
Irrelevant. Then you’re wasting your degree being a coke machine. Maybe Brandon will wipe out your student debt (that you’re no doubt up to date on).
Salaries are pretty high now. I knew a lady who graduated college with some kind of a hospitality degree and ended up getting courted by a restaurant in the south. They paid for her move and her salary was $90K plus full benefits. I thought it was pretty high for someone fresh out of school although her family did own a restaurant (but not in the south or anything to do with her job).
CHRIS,
Different people have different reasons for picking the work they do even when they have the ability and qualifications to do other work. People who are working respectfully and respecting the demands of the job deserve respect and not condescension for working. Your disrespect for people who provide you service speaks more about you than about them, so ask yourself why do you even end up traveling in a way that lands you with “poor, overpaid service”. And take responsibility for your own purchase decisions or make some real money to get better and more consistent service if it really is an issue for you.
@ CHRIS — Who’s Brandon?
What happened to the story about them on food stamps?
CHRIS, your opinion. I’ve traveled the World on someone else’s dime and used my earned degrees to boot. I think that makes me pretty smart. I was fortunate to have parents that worked hard, taught me to also work hard, manners and to respect other people. They also paid for my degrees which I will always be grateful. Hating and bullying others is very unbecoming. Do better. Have a nice day.
I’m not surprised that those who want to put in the hours will make substantially more than the line guarantee. I say good for them. The union says you’re taking someone else’s job. Yet apparently the union officers take trip pull pay and still pick up premium extra trips.
It’s got to be financially difficult for junior employees now. I’m thankful that I was able to enjoy “the good old days” of working for an airline . . . eight different ones to be exact. I was more a QOL bidder since I never lived in domicile. But I figured with what I made and contributed to my retirement funds I would be fine. That was before 2020 and the current administration’s economic plan of Socialism for everyone. Hang in there folks, it can get worse. Check with members of The Legion of Forgotten Airlines.
@Flyer
So then it’s NOT a bad gig afterall? What happened to all you guys being paid as “slaves”, sleeping in your car, collecting welfare and eating out of the garbage?
Flyer1 – degrees paid for? So you’re a leech then? How about paying for yourself.