News and notes from around the interweb:
- A newly hired United flight attendant resigned three months in because of “unforeseen financial stress” – which was compounded when the airline billed her $1,300. United’s “new-hire recovery” policy requires flight attendant trainees to take a loan from the airline as part of their training.
The flight attendant’s training expense gets forgiven unless the crewmember leaves. The invoice gave her two weeks to pay or face collections.
- “First class”
My @AmericanAir experience in first class right now. Inoperable first class seat! No work, no meal! Beautifully hand written as well. pic.twitter.com/Yv2dp3SydD
— 0351 Kelly (@NYC0351) May 10, 2025
- What’s grosser than gross, Delta Sky Club edition.
Changing a diaper on the SkyClub floor? I mean, kind of gross. Leaving that diaper on the table for someone else to pick up? WTF is wrong with you??
byu/auggiedoggies indelta - Register to earn 1,000 Etihad miles (in addition to Hyatt points) on Hyatt stays at participating in Europe, Africa, and Middle East May 15 – July 14, 2025. Sadly it looks like my Hyatt stays at eligible properties come just after the end of the promotional period. I registered anyway because who knows what’ll come up and I’d never remember to go back and register for the offer later if something does.
- Earn and burn.
- ‘American Airlines: Get Pregnant With Us’
Interested in seeing the responses on this one, is that even legal ? We have tried to recover training fees we have to pay if someone leaves in the past. They can cost us a lot, I have been told too bad.
I have no sadness for the ex United flight attendant who signed for a loan and is now being required to pay it back. Quitting doesn’t erase signed for debts. Maybe a go fund me campaign would help.
@leonard – it is very common and legal provided disclosed up front and the employee willingly enters into the agreement. Maybe there are some states that prohibit such conditions but I’ve seen it with relocation costs, sign on bonuses and training costs, among others, if the employee quits within a specified timeframe.
The loan is voluntary. She almost certainly signed a contract that outlined terms. Unless there’s an ambiguity in the terms which could be construed against the drafted of the contract (i.e., the airline), she’s almost certainly on the hook.
This is not an uncommon practice in other industries. When I was studying for the bar exam a million years ago, I voluntarily took a “bar study” loan, as did many of my classmates who, like me, weren’t getting paid to study to pass the exam we needed to pass to become licensed attorneys. (And for what it’s worth, the terms on these private loans are generally not nearly as favorable as regular financial aid loans that one can take while actively enrolled in a university for undergrad or grad school). And like with the flight attendant who resigned, my obligation to repay the loan was not contingent on me becoming a lawyer, passing the bar, remaining a lawyer for any period of time, etc.
While it sucks to have financial difficulties, that does not relieve you of contractual obligations to repay loans. It might give you a reasonable basis to ask the creditor to work with you on repayment terms (or even ask to defer payments for a period of time), and many creditors will indeed work with you, knowing that the alternative of a default is in no one’s best interests, but they certainly are not obligated to do so.
Asking because I do not know…is this a T+C negotiated as a part of the collective bargaining between the union and United or are the FAs in training not covered under collective bargaining?
She thinks she can walk away from that loan just like she thinks “Sleepy Joe Biden” was going to cancel her student loans. Pay up.
Many years ago I lived where people would park for free and go to the swap meet. Many weekends I found a used diaper in my yard along with other garbage and once a bench car seat. Still, leaving it on the table in the lounge is grosser.
@Coffee her loan from United is not the same thing as President Biden cancelling student loan debt. It’s unfortunate you are trying conflate things in order to twist the topic to your political leanings.
Is it in the employment agreement? If so, did she understand what she signed? I think airlines are pretty transparent about first year potential earnings given that most flight attendants are working reserve.
Changing a diaper on an airline club floor? No surprise here. The number of children running amuck in a lounge while the parents booze it up never ceases to amaze me. That’s the new parenting style. My child is your problem, not mine.
Early year flight attendants are not screwed by the airline, they’re screwed by the union. The contract could offer better pay to new flight attendants, but that would be at the expense of flight attendants who already did their hazing period, so unlikely to change.
The airline offers the loan so that flight attendants who can’t afford to start a flight attendant career can do so by paying for it with their future earnings. If the airline didn’t, they’d be limited to only hiring people who already had the necessary financial buffer to survive those first lean years. And the airline is pretty sure they’ll get paid back since they can just deduct from future paychecks.
Works OK for everyone, unless you decide you don’t actually want to be a flight attendant.
I had a place that thought I was going to pay for their background check and drug test (this wasn’t like to get a CDL, or some job that required this — it was just some crap $10 an hour job that thought they should pay their wage slaves as little as possible *and* take the company’s expenses out of that low pay.) I told them to take a hike and worked somewhere that had more respect for their employees.
Honestly, if United really wants these types of monies paid back, they might get better odds of it if they truly treated it like a loan. Like, a fraction is paid off each week you work there, and if you quit before it’s paid off you pay the balance off over some months. If I got a sudden “pay this within 2 weeks or else”, I’d do what the other United FAs apparently did and just ignore it — that is not reasonable. If I got the offer to pay it off over some months, I probably would.
What the hell is wrong with that hobag that left a diaper on the table? Gross! That’s what trash cans are for (… well, in an airport they’re more for empty drink and food containers… but yeah.)
Coffee Please: you mean like your boy Trump who signed agreements with his contractors, then after the work was done, paid them pennies on the dollar and told them to try to sue him for the rest?