United Airlines flight attendants just got a new contract negotiated by their union, but rank-and-file cabin crew are increasingly negative on the deal.

AFA-CWA promised that, after five years without a raise, their members would get industry-leading pay. Instead they’re getting pay comparable to Delta, and more or less an inflation-adjustment. The average increase in the contract is 26.9%, against inflation since last raise of 24%.

To get those raises there are a number of givebacks that flight attendants are furious over. To be sure, many of the items of concern are really just misinformation or misunderstandings. However some are quite real.

• Assigning hybrid roles and purser duties on an ad hoc basis can mean more work without override pay.
  
• New grievance and discipline procedures include informal coaching that could help the airline build a disciplinary record – but that can’t be grieved.

Aviation watchdog JonNYC, though, notices something potentially much more significant: the airline can start putting up flight attendants in much lower quality hotels during their layovers. Instead of business class hotels, we could start to see hovels.

All that a hotel needs is “regular maintenance and cleaning” such that it is “in a tenantable condition” in order to qualify for crew lodging assignment, provided that flight attendants get non-smoking rooms with double beds away from elevators, ice and vending machines, housekeepig closets and construction noise. There must be an ATM ‘within reasonable walking distance’ of the hotel, and provide free 800-number phone calls.

UA: from the FA TA, hotel downgrade:

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— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) June 11, 2025 at 1:09 PM

At first blush, one wonders how it is even possible that union negotiators agreed to this change. However they have to believe that’s what it took to get some semblance of the raises they promised to members.

The union made a strategic blunder in slow-walking contract negotiations, letting American Airlines go first (and possibly having their flight attendants endure a strike) in order to set a new bar for negotiations. AFA-CWA even lent American’s union their lead negotiator. However they’ve since lost leverage.

• Airline unions cannot strike without government permission
  
• The Biden administration – the most pro-union in history – did not sign off on any airline strikes. Airlines strikes are very unpopular, and bad for the economy.
  
• However, Donald Trump was elected and that means Trump appointing a majority of the National Mediation Board and being in a position to delay strikes even if the NMB were to sign off on one.

Without credible threat of strike, the union’s bargaining position declined, but they still needed to get economic terms on part with cabin crew elsewhere in the industry. So we’re seeing a number of items that appear as givebacks.

I take them at their word that this is the best deal they could get. The union emphasizes that flight attendants who believe they should ‘never take the first deal’ are wrong, because the union hasn’t agreed to the first offer. Nonetheless, several contractual changes in the tentative agreement they’re being asked to agree to are going to be deeply unpopular.