The American Airlines flight attendants union has been in negotiations with the company since before the pandemic. They’ve requested a federal mediator for negotiations even though they continue reporting to their membership details of the progress they’re making.
The union reported at the end of last week that they’ve come to an agreement over how to handle flight attendants who ‘sell their seniority’ (a group known as ‘the cartel’) offering up their trips to more junior crew in exchange for cash ($200 on average) or other favors.
- American wanted sole discretion in determining who was engaging in this activity
- The union agreed to help put a stop to it as long as they got shared say in the standards that were used.
The company modified and we agreed to new language in Section 10.V to address cartel issues. The company proposal gave them sole discretion to choose the objective metrics used to determine if a Flight Attendant was using the scheduling systems to circumvent seniority. The agreed-upon language provides that APFA and the Company will mutually agree upon a process to address seniority abuse through an objective metric. Offenders may find themeslves restricted from TTS/UBL/ETB.
In fact it’s actually pretty obvious when this is happening when ultra junior cabin crew get to regularly pick up “Tel Aviv, Delhi, London Heathrow” and South America.
But the union is effectively throwing these members under the bus.
- The union isn’t taking the traditional position that their members own their schedules and can do what they want with them.
- They’re offering to work with the company to ferret out their own members and they aren’t even claiming to be getting anything in exchange.
The contract American Airlines flight attendants are working under is unusual. As part of an agreement that got union leadership at the time on board with US Airways taking over the combined carrier out of bankruptcy, there was a deal for a joint flight attendant agreement (Conditional Labor Agreement) that was imposed without legacy American Airlines flight attendants ever voting for it. Many crew thought they were sold down the river by a union head who was cousins with the treasurer of US Airways.
There were a number of unusual things in the deal. As I understand it, union reps got big raises – paid for 110 hours of trip-removal each month for their union work, nearly a 40% bump, and they can still pick up extra flying – which they can drop and give to friends through trip trades. So it’s a bit ironic for the union leadership to agree to crackdown on backroom dealing and trip trades.
I don’t actually expect a contract before the fall, because current union leadership needs to get re-elected first. If they agree to a contract that’s for less than what members (unrealistically) expect, they’ll get voted out of office. And the company isn’t going to give them something generous enough to run on. Instead they need to get voted back into office before they’re in a position to negotiate pay increases and then tell their members it’s the best they could do.
It’s not a union it’s an organization that has a partnership with the company.
Let me understand this. Flight Attendants pay union dues so the union can get them fired for” selling a senior trip to junior Flight Attendant. I always thought part of unions is to protect its members.
When the union is taking this step must be because this situation is unfair to the majority of the members, there are rules that prohibit this. The company doesn’t need help from the union to find out who is doing this, this employees are not getting fired, just their right to do this trades blocked/locked out.
Unions breed corruption
Since the Union leadership does not want junior flight attendants to regularly pick up trips to Tel Aviv, Delhi, London Heathrow, and South America for a fee in exchange for cash ($200 on average) or other favors, the junior flight attendants might attempt to vote out their Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), union leadership which currently represents over 23,000 American Airlines flight attendants.
Some flight attendants may also be frustrated because “the union reps got big raises – paid for 110 hours of trip-removal each month for their union work, nearly a 40% bump, and they can still pick up extra flying – which they can drop and give to friends through trip trades.”
Why would the union agree to do this when the union members Their selves are doing this? I see nothing wrong with flight attendants, dropping trips to their friends as long as they didn’t pick up an extra trip in their schedule. It’s our trip. We should have the right to drop it to whoever we want before we put it into trip trade.
I guess WN’s contract is different as they “put money” on trip drops and reserve drops all the time, often $150-300 depending on base
I guess WN’s contract is different as they “put money” on trip drops and reserve drops all the time, often $150-300 depending on base
Who gives a Rat’s Butt
I don’t work in the airline industry. But the practice of senior staff selling slots to junior staff reeks of corruption. At the end of the day, the passengers pay for it with higher fees. I don’t blame AA, or any airline, for firing anyone who does this. If an employee of mine was doing this, I’d fire them on the spot.
What this practice reminds of me is the deep institutional corruption you see in third world countries with their goverment employees. A job is not a job. It is a license to steal. Lower level employees don’t get paid to work. They have to pay to their bosses for the right to hold the position, and that payment comes from corruption paid by the end customers, the public. This is done in the form of bribing police, shakes downs, and having to bribe government employees to get anything done.
The senior government employees in such countries make heaps of money collecting payment from their underlings, and kicking most of that upstairs to their bosses at the tob. Just like how the mafia works. For the senior goverment employees, their pricipal concern is cash flow, not governance.
This AA thing is just the same crap on a smaller scale. Either do the work and get paid, or don’t and let someone else do the work for the same money.
I agree with the company. It really means you don’t want to work but prefer the benefits which comes at a cost to the company. If you don’t want to work then quit. Let fresh blood, new hires take over the job. Friendlier faces
Contrary to what the blogger stated, the union members aren’t asking for much in negotiations. It would be a major failure on the union to not get most of what they’re asking for. For union leaders sake, a contract will need to be ratified before any union election, otherwise they’ll be gone
I am not following the thread that seems to suggest that this costs AA money.
It seems to me a junior flight attendant is paying a more senior money out of their own pocket
to get a trip they would not be able to get based on their seniority.
How does this cost AA anything?
If I missing the big picture, let me know
@Tom – they’re demanding 35% raises immediately, then 6% per year, higher per diems that also automatically snap up based on any new pilot contract https://viewfromthewing.com/american-airlines-flight-attendants-demand-35-raises-plus-what-the-pilots-get/
This all seems silly to me.
Why should the company care? The flights are getting covered one way or another.
Why is this unfair to the flight attendants who don’t engage? If the scheme is stopped, they will still have the same seniority and be working the same flights as before.
If some junior flight attendants want to pay out of their own pockets to get better assignments, let them! If some senior flight attendants are able to give away all their trips and not work, maybe you are overstaffed!
That said, it is an interesting market signal that the pay formula is out of whack. Maybe they should pay less for longer flights to “Tel Aviv, Delhi, London Heathrow” and more for the shorthaul domestic BUF/CLE/LIT/OMA flights that the junior FAs are paying money to avoid.
The right way to do this is to make the payment through the trading mechanism, and to report the income on W2 or 1099. This way, the bidding is transparent, and if junior flight attendants want to pay up to go to unusual destinations, they can. The senior flight attendants make more money, and the junior flight attendants get to visit places they haven’t seen before.
A more AA way of doing this would be to allow both seniority and dollars to be bid, and for AA to get the money instead of the senior flight attendants. A way to pay poorly paid junior flight attendants even less!
I don’t believe the senior flight attendants can give away all their trips, unless they are making their money from selling the trips, as they don’t get paid for trips they don’t take, and still need to fly a minimum amount of hours.
The company should care and stop outsourcing labor management to a corrupt organization. And before firing these people, they should focus on firing flight attendants who board to read magazine and chat on the job instead of providing service.
After all, 99.999% of their job is service, and providing service does not interfere whatsoever with the 0.001% of the time they are needed for safety reasons.
All flight attendants should still have minimum hours in a given bid to work to keep their status. Trading allows them to use their travel benefits. Also, senior employees have paid a lot of dues time and money wise to get to high seniority, now you are telling them it won’t matter? This practice has been standard on the ground and in the air forever.
Sounds like a RICO investigation waiting to happen.
What the issue it seems to me is very senior flight attendants that hold great trips and have for many decades have thousands of Flight Attendants just Junior to them and have decades of waiting for those trips see the senior ones bidding those trips not working them and selling them to young Flight Attendants that have not paid their dues and getting the trips that those others have waited for many years and decades.
Clearly the majority of you have jot worked in the airline industry. As long is appropriately covered with a knowledgeable and trained FA there isn’t a problem. How would Jr FAs learn how to work certain flights if they can’t get them…duh. Jr FAs normally get the flight no one wants or what’s left over. I say let them swap. Sheessshhh.
All of you making stupid suggestions about W2s, 1099s, adjusting pay depending on destination, length of flight et al, ought to just shut up and mind your own business. Worry about your own paychecks, beg for your upgrades—thanks to your companies paying for your trips—sit down, fasten your entitlement seat belts, slobber over your gin and tonics and just sit down and ride. Y’all don’t know everything about everything. Stay in your lanes!!!
None of this is passed on to the customer. In fact, having a junior flight attendant work a trip held by a senior flight attendant actually saves the company money because their pay rate is about 1/3 of a senior flight attendants pay. AA actually saves money when this happens which is probably why it’s been allowed for so long. If it cost them money, they would have had incentive to stop it. The problem is how it impacts other senior flight attendants. People with 30+years seniority who can’t hold a schedule with trips they desire because other flight attendants senior to them intentionally bid those trips to drop to their friends or to sell them. It wasn’t that long ago that AA had two divisions. One for domestic and one for international. You had to have about 20 years seniority before you could be an international flight attendant. So understand why many people who have been flying for decades are upset that trips they should be eligible to work are being denied them due to unethical behavior by co-workers. The difference in international trip value vs domestic is substantial. In some cases over 1k a trip. If someone should/could be flying international trips, but can’t because someone is acquiring them with the intention to sell them, they are losing thousands of dollars a month. The issue should have been handled a long time ago.
A Union that sells out its own members…isn’t a Union and should be Disbanded!
The problem here is seniority and what that agent can hold. This is no difference than reservations or a gate agent. We have a system that we exchange shifts for a day off. They gray area is being paid to pick up that shift. It happens in other areas of the company. There really is no way to stop it from happening. If you report it it’s heresy and you can’t prove it. You can offer it to the person below you on the seniority list but the have to have that day off. The positive outlook on this is the junior agent gets more experience. People have family emergencies and it’s hard to get off of work at AA. AA needs to have an extra pool of people to pull from. What a lot of people do not realize that one flight attendant calling in cancels the whole flight and leaves everyone else stranded.Then passengers complain their flight is canceled and they have missed their business meeting.
As long as the juniors can do the job, why does AA care, except to exert control. AA has the most complaints of any domestic airline, and they want to chase off employees during a time of worker shortages? Getting someone to cover your shift has never been a problem until AA stepped in.
Wow I would like a Job there to make some extra cash.
Great loop hole in the system. The employees will just find another way and hide it from that awful union and AA.
If I have 40 years and bid for 10 trips with the intention of only flying 3 and selling 7 to FA with less than 20 years, then I have literally stolen trips from someone that has 20-30 years that could have bid for those trips, but are now forced to work less desirable trips. This isn’t about switching your schedule around. It’s a blatant scheme to make money by not working and screwing others. The Company should fire them, but the Union is in cahoots with the cartels.
I see your point, but if people are paid for not working, that’s the problem. The $200 wouldn’t be worth it. AA could restrict selling choice routes to the hypothetical 3, or make sure everyone eligible gets some routes before others get multiple ones. Firing people isn’t a wise move.
It’s clear that most of the commenters running their mouths here aren’t flight attendants and don’t know what they’re talking about.
Most flight attendants who are NOT super junior oppose “cartel activity”… It’s only the SUPER SENIOR FAs who want it to continue.
FAs who are at the cusp of holding elite assignments get annoyed at the very senior FAs who pick up assignments without any intention on actually working the trips
As for the junior FAs who get them… It tends to be the same ones… it’s not as if it’s equal opportunity.
There was an internal poll done on this topic and the vasy majority of us OPPOSE cartel activity so the Union is, in fact, fighting for what most of us want… Except for the minority of senior FAs and even smaller minority of non-senior FAs who have benefited from this practice.
Nobody is paying people for their trips. This is all hearsay and total BS.
When I worked for Delta in the 70s and 80s, you had to post the trip you wanted to drop on what was called, Open Time”. Also, all uncovered trips for other reasons were posted there as well. At the end of each day, they were given out to FAs that filled out a form requesting them and assigning them was done using seniority. If I dropped a trip and wanted another or if I was simply picking up an extra one .. I was able to pick up my requested trip, unless someone senior to me also wanted it. It kept seniority as a priority without completely shutting junior FAs out from flying some of the premo trips.
It’s not a Union. It’s an Association that’s funded by the company, and essentially has the final say in what the Association presents to them for change. APFA – Association of Professional Flight Attendants. There is NO Union.
Gary leff. Inflation is at over 20% since the last contract expired and there has been an increase in unpaid sits and decrease in premium long haul travel. Combined with the increased hostility of passengers, a 35% raise plus boarding pay for an opening proposal is pretty low
@Bobbi: The Association of Professional Flight Attendants is the certified collective bargaining representative for the American Airlines Flight Attendants.
Through the APFA, American Airlines flight attendants can negotiate fair contracts, promote their interests in Washington, D.C., guarantee their rights, and settle disputes with the Company judiciously.
Membership in the Union enables each American Airlines Flight Attendant to multiply the power that they would have alone. The APFA says, “Our strength is in our numbers, our organization, and our unity. So, please wear your Union pin with pride and participate in your organization — the Association of Professional Flight Attendants!”
Bobbi, if you are still trying to figure out that APFA is a union, why not call their headquarters so you can share your thoughts and learn about APFA? For your convenience, I have listed their phone number and address below.
APFA Headquarters
1004 West Euless Boulevard
Euless, Texas 76040
M-F: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (CT)
Phone: (817) 540-0108
The issues being written about in the (not-so friendly skies). Yesterday, was passengers asking to trade seats. Today, it’s flight attendants selling shifts. And tomorrow, it’s going to be something else to complain about.
First off , no one is getting fired for shady dealings- they’re being restricted from using scheduling tools that facilitate their theft. Next, when a Senior FA literally takes 3 IPD on the same days over and over again- it’s abuse. In 1989, legacy AA had the same issue happening-and the company ( and union) agreed that the activity was egregious. The solution was to restrict the dropping of any trip that was picked up on makeup flying. You got it – you had to fly it. This isn’t any different. The job is predicated on seniority – and if you, as a senior FA, are commandeering 200+ hours of international flying each month, only to give it away , all while inhibiting open time with the crappy trips you’re acquiring from junior FAs to do that -you are the reason we need restrictions in place. Please- quit pandering to people who have no ethics .
LHR I understand, but I’m surprised to see that TLV and DEL are so desirable. Is it simply because those are long-haul routes, which I suppose are easier than several short-haul, or something else?
The CPI has been up less than 17% over the last three years. The last raise was in 2019 so the last contract expired in 2020. It has been either slightly more than three years or less than three years since that happened. Hostility of passenger has been due to entitlement by a few passengers but maybe more so by actions of flight attendants such as the debacle of making a pregnant woman get down on her knees to clean up popcorn that her kids spilled after being given it by the flight attendants. I suppose that the pay raise that was negotiated for the flight pay starting at the close of the doors could be reversed.
It’s all about money as usual. They sell the trips they made money, they sell the credit cards they make money. Isn’t this the American way?
There are other airlines that do the exact same thing. It’s not just Flight attendants it’s call center reps as well. To be treated so unfair just because you haven’t worked at a company very long is wrong. Everyone is supposed to
Be created equally. Not so I’m the Airline industry.
Wow how petty can you get. 35 yrs and it’s never been a problem who you trade trips with or for fact CS on the ground. This is clearly some US Air policy. For the record offering some sort incentive was alway between the parties. The company’s position was and still should be a Body for body. AA straighten up and fly right. Should miss Rob Crandall. Probably the most profitable time in American Airlines History.
@ATC “Stay in your lane” doesn’t change the tax consequences. Even bribes are taxable income. I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt and to believe that they are reporting the income. The consequences of not doing so are harsh.
What should happen if senior university professors sell their 8AM class slots to junior professors? What if travelling nurses sell their destinations to each other?
Each work environment is different, of course, but payments are income regardless of which environment.
It seems like a perk to me. It seems if someone has earned something. They should be able to do with it what they want.
I say let them do it but make limitations so they’re not scalping or whatever. It sounds like it’s being done with people in the company anyway.
No need to disallow.
WIN. WIN
The union me.knees should care, because the ones with more seniority are selling spots to junior people. If the senior people don’t want to fly the trip, it should first go to the people with more seniority. Selling it to people more junior takes away from the people in the middle, which is what the union should be protecting.
This sounds like the most sensible and reasonable path to reaping the benefits of long term employment that the job market has to offer these days.
If the shifts weren’t worth buying they wouldn’t be sold. Surely every person selling shifts has put in their time in order to get to that point.
#lookathowtheymakeusbickerwitheachotherastheycounttheirmoneywemade
You remember when the media would protect whistle blowers? Today the media hunts and rats out whistle blowers. This is something they never did before… Today unions are not there to protect the workers who pay for these unions reps. Conversely these unions are out to get workers fired. This is the new world disorder and you never have to wonder why how this country will fall to wayside.
AA, DA & UA have been selling their Flight Attendants down the river and giving the Pilots all kinds of Red Book money for years. Those Airlines manage through Fear and actually care very, very little fir the Flight Attendants. For a Union to be working with the company to find these F/a’s is wrong in itself. Since when did a Union work so damned hard to help a company possibly terminate it’s members??
The Union leadership is essentially are doing the same thing as the the Senior F/a’s. Anyone with good since wouldn’t want to work for these Legacy carriers anyway.
This is wrong. They should be able to share trade and reschedule anything they want. They have earned the right to use their benefits anyway they like. American Airlines does not treat their flight attendants well. In the past it meant something to wear those wings. Leave these employees alone! GREEDY, EVIL, TYRANTS.
Is there any airline hiring at the moment? If yes please am asking if you should tell me.