American Airlines has just given employees an incentive to get vaccinated, following a similar announcement from Marriott yesterday.
Continue reading: American Airlines’ Employee Vaccination Incentive
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
ONE WHOLE extra vacation day? An ENTIRE $50? So generous. Maybe they could throw in two cans of dog food.
Unrelated, but assuming you heard about the hack of SITA passenger service, effecting frequent flyer info for millions of passengers on both onewoorld and star alliance airlines?
I'm guessing the extra vacation day is to compensate for anyone having to take a day off for the vaccine (whether that's for the appointment or the side effects).
Agree with @JB
My company just said "make sure you schedule the second shot when you have the next day off." I had a low grade fever for about 36 hours. Not terrible, but could not have worked if I had been scheduled.
At the hospital my sister works at, people were told if they had symptoms afterwards, they could have the day off without affecting their normal PTO/sick leave. I think a lot of people had "symptoms."
Right now CDC would not say whether or not a fully vaccinated person could be a virus carrier similar to an asymptotic person. Then getting vaccinated should be a personal decision. Note that according to NBC in "Johnson & Johnson's trial ... the vaccine was found to be 72 percent effective at preventing what the company defined as moderate to severe Covid-19." What this means that the vaccinated people were still infected with Covid-19 but the disease is not severe. Indeed, such folks could be still Covid-19 carriers. Now, if I am a vaccinated FA, I could be getting a minor case of Covid-19 - perhaps, a headache and no fever. Then I will not think about Covid-19 and show up for work to spread the virus.
@Chuck an extra day off to get a shot (I'd already get) that seems quite generous. Marriott is giving 4 hours pay, I'd rather have a day off.
I think it's great.
Honestly, I feel like only one day of vacation is a bit miserly. I've got a few friends who've been knocked on their asses for like 2-3 days by the second dose. Obviously it's worth the ordeal, given the alternative. But if they're actually trying to incentivize employees to go out of their way to get it, they should at least cover the potential downside.
@ Lucky...not sure any employer can make vaccines under CURRENT authorization act for this vaccine. This is why the incentives.
Everyone who is saying “it won’t cover the days off for getting sick from the shot” isn’t understanding this at all. This is a vacation day for next year not this year. AA has sick leave, which would cover any side effects of the shot. This is above and beyond that and is a feee vacation day for the next year. It may not be a lot but it’s a pretty nice incentive especially for those who work at a company with free flying.
@JB and NK3. The vacation day is not to use to get the vaccine or recover, we are already allotted time off for that.
Yah I just got that email today about the breach of personal info. Around 4pm central time. What the heck ?
Total snowflake mentality. You want to work for AA? Get the vaccine. Are you anti-vax? Go find another job. That simple. No incentive needed.
@Kuloko At this point you have to worry more about protecting your own life than possibly spreading COVID. While the vaccines appear to not be anywhere near 100% effective in preventing spread, they are pretty much near 100% effective in preventing severe illness and most importantly death. You can pretty much guarantee that even if you were to catch COVID, it would be something minor at most. So when you think about the vaccine as this: an opportunity to guarantee your safety or as a way to potentially spread COVID unknowingly, I prefer to think of it as an opportunity to guarantee your own safety.
So since it isn't a 100% guarantee that an employee can't spread COVID, it seems like you're asking why should getting vaccines than also be something tied to professional life. Well the answer is that companies like AA benefit from not having an employee catch COVID and potentially dying. This would certainly be something blamed on AA or any other company and while there may be no legal repercussion, the public relations repercussions of employees dying after catching COVID from working on a plane is huge. Then there is also a reduction in COVID spread. While it is not 100%, any reduction is still a reduction which makes it better before and reduces the chance of COVID outbreaks tied to AA planes, a win win for everyone involved.
@JG Stunning and so American-like for people to not realize sick time would definitely cover something like this from getting the vaccine to the possible side effects. In addition shouldn't it be plainly obvious that the hospitality industry would have accommodations for employees getting vaccines... Obviously they won't make people to use a vacation day for something like that.
This incentive from AA equates to $323 total for a veteran Flight Attendant - not bad but certainly nothing over the top !
Great initiative from American, but it also highlights how terrible working conditions and workers rights are in the country.
@Jordan -- According to a newly released Pew poll, 69% of Americans intend to get or have already gotten the COVID-19 vaccine. "The stats" prove the opposite of what you said.
A vaccine so effective they have to pay people to take it. Agree with @Jordan
BTW, vaccine companies are immune from liability that arise from vaccines.
Also, this vaccine is not yet FDA approved. It is for emergency use right now. I read (can't confirm this) that, as such, insurance companies will not pay for claims from injury from it because it is experimental. I do know from my own experience that my insurance company will not pay for experimental treatments.
“The announcement comes as demand seems to be softening.”
I expect the news media to be ramping up the scare tactics soon.
@airgypsy, the willingness of people to take a vaccine is not a reflection of vaccine effectiveness. It’s a reflection of the stupidity of the population.
“Experimental” . All the current vaccines have phase III randomised trial results supporting their use. The highest standard of evidence in medical sciences. What standard would enlightened individuals such as yourself require for a therapy to be “non experimental”?
@Aussie. When it's been officially approved by the FDA. It isn't FDA approved right now.
@Andreas you just be joking or demented? American working conditions and labor laws are certainly in the top tier worldwide. Perhaps you can work in PNG, India or Venezuela and report back to us on their stellar worker shangra-la conditions.
@Timo Two weeks paid holiday, little to no job security, poverty salaries, many jobs not offering health insurance? Reminds me of some of the countries you mention.
It's not really about how "big" the incentive is IMO. Plus you have to remember that AA is the largest commercial airline in the US. I can't say for sure at this point (do to layoffs/early retirement..etc) but in 2020 they had over 130,000 employees. The next biggest airline had about 90,000. Obviously not everyone will get the jab, but it is potentially a huge amount of money they'd be giving away. In a time where they are already hemorrhaging cash.
If I have taken the time to get my vaccine and I'm actually flying on American this summer I would hope that their employees would be vaccinated... Why are you giving them an incentive to get vaccinated it's the responsible thing to do ...