United Airlines and its flight attendants union reached a tentative agreement in March. It gives flight attendants their first raise in 5.5 years. And it’s significant, more than making up for inflation eroding their income by over 20% in the meantime. In fact, the most senior flight attendants at United will earn over $100 an hour.
The new contract just passed, with 82% of flight attendants voting to ratify it, which is huge. 88.85% of eligible union members cast votes.
It’s about time! Flight attendants rejected the last contract their union had negotiated. To get more money in some areas, they had to give up scope (allowing United Airlines to own a reginal carrier without staffing it with members of their union) and give back some retro back that accounted for years without a raise.
United’s flight attendants get raises that cover inflation losses. Gains come from boarding pay (which non-union Delta pioneered in 2022) and sit pay for long layovers, which the airline now has an incentive to avoid.
The union had said that United had put in all the money that they were going to extract with the first contract, but this new one it seems does a better job allocating that money in line with crew priorities.
Many flight attendants aren’t happy with the deal. But there wasn’t the kind of active complaining about specific parts of it, like layover hotel rules, that you heard after the first tentative agreement was released. That made it clear this would pass – plus, cabin crew were just ready to finally be paid. In July 2025, 71% voted no. 10 months later, 82% voted yes.
Flight attendant hourly rates at United will now be higher than at Delta (and 1% higher than American), however United’s contract does not give them the same profit-sharing formula that Delta uses and that American flight attendants won two years ago.
Differences in pay with Delta will be driven by (1) the annual raises that Delta provides, without waiting on a contract and (2) actual profit. If Delta continues to be the most profitable airline, and share profits more aggressively, then their flight attendants will still be the best paid.
In the meantime, in addition to raises, United Airlines will be paying out $740 million in retro pay as a signing bonus. Much of that was already booked in United’s financials, but higher labor costs are going to begin to affect the airline’s financials. They’ve been making enough so that this won’t matter, as long as macro conditions do not change…
That seems crazy they have to do back pay since the contract ended last… but my question is what about any employees who are no longer with the company but worked for 2 or 3 years after the last contract ended. Do they get anything? Or nothing since they are no longer with the company… just something I’m curious about.
@Lanny they will get nada. They had to stay on. This is just like virtually any company. You generally don’t get bonuses or retention pay if you leave (it’s not like a sales commission).
Counting down until United buys out the majority holders of Commuteair in 3…2…1.
Glad they finally got a new deal and back pay. It’s never perfect, but the progress here is good.
H’m lets see how good UA’s financials will look now.
they booked $500 million of the retro so have a couple hundred million more to go.
They also will have increased labor rates so their earnings will be decreased.
add in higher fuel costs and UA’s earnings will fall.
now onto the mechanics.
Tim logic:
United flight attendants: *(get a raise)
“United’s costs are now worse! Their previous margins were artificially higher due to lower employee costs, which just evaporated!”
Delta’s flight attendants: *(also get a raise)
“Delta will continue to lead the industry in profits! Increasing Delta’s employee compensation does not reduce Delta’s profit margins! Delta! Delta! Delta!”
They really needed to do this to reset to a higher baseline.
The headline seems like a tease: The standard workweek in the USA is around 40 hours so any reader not in the know would reasonably figure that would work out to $200,000 a year. If you were looking for factual headlines you could have said something along the line of “With New Raises United Flight Attendants Now Earn up to 20% Of What Pilots Make”.
@Christian – these are the rates in the contract, it’s how the union itself frames it, they’re the hourly rates for the flight – they separately earn boarding pay at 50%, and there’s a sit rig for long airport time. With red flag pay things start to get a lot higher.
There are flight attendants making over 100k and pilots making under 200k so your “up to 20% of what pilots make” isn’t really accurate. It also takes a lot more time and money to become a pilot, pilots are far scarcer, I don’t think that’s the relevant comparison for the job.
Gary not all flight attendants make 100 dollars per flight hour. Good try!
@Scoot – I literally present the earnings table in the post!
As flight attendants a regular line or schedule for the month is about 80 flight hours so a good formula for our hourly wage is about half of what the hourly pay is for a full time flying schedule, compared to other hourly paid employees in different careers.
They deserve what they can negotiate. FA unions are usually pretty bad at negotiating so I’m surprised they got this. Good for them!
@Tim Dunn Don’t forget about the dispatchers who are negotiating currently
DXR,
there are multiple UA workgroups that are working under amendable contracts. The FAs just happen to be the largest but smaller groups like dispatchers need new contracts as well.
Sarah,
UA’s strategy for years has been to drag out settling years long labor contracts to avoid spending money. and UA saved hundreds of millions per year on top of retro that employees will never recover. UA’s earnings will suffer.
In contrast, DL has led the industry in paying higher salaries and their earnings are because they can generate revenue better than anyone else.
no, the reason for DL and UA earnings aren’t remote comparab le.
@Sarah M. is correct. Delta’s strategy is to wait-out United and American’s contracts, then offer $1 more so that its own flight attendants, baggage handlers, and maintenance technicians wait a little longer before joining their pilots (since 1934!) and dispatchers in forming unions, too. Also, short-term earnings aren’t everything, Tim. It’s a marathon, not a sprint!
I expect that there will be a number of retirements as soon as the retro pay is received. This should work to lower the cost of employing flight attendants. By how much is the question. It will go on a while. How much this initially offsets the rising wages will have to be seen. How much boarding pay and sit pay add to the overall employee costs will have to be determined later. The 1000 work hours per year target will have to be modified to accommodate these less than full rate additions.
So uh…….now can I get a pre-departure beverage?