American Accuses Flight Attendants Of Theft For Bidding On Delayed Trips

As reported by @xJonNYC, American Airlines is accusing some of its flight attendants of trying to profit off of rolling delays, and is calling it theft. I’m sure this will ruffle some feathers among flight attendants, especially given the tense contract negotiations going on.

How American flight attendants are profiting off of delayed flights

Flight attendants have a complex system through which they can bid on trips, based on a variety of factors, and that determines their schedules. In addition to their standard monthly bidding, flight attendants can pick up trips at the last minute for extra pay, assuming it doesn’t interfere with any trips they already have on their schedule. They always need a minimum amount of rest between sequences, typically at least 10 hours.

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American is accusing flight attendants of intentionally picking up trips that they have no intention of flying, in order to get more pay, and the company is calling it theft. According to American:

• Flight attendants are bidding at the last minute to work flights that have rolling delays, whereby the flight attendants already know that a flight is delayed; it’s common for there to be last minute trips available, since it could be that a crew timed out when there’s a major delay
• Flight attendants are intentionally bidding on these flights when they have another trip in their schedule in the near future, so that they’d barely have enough rest (but based on the scheduled departure time as of the time they bid on the trip, they do have enough rest)
• In situations where the delay continues to be extended, flight attendants then can’t work their next trip, but they still get paid for it, since the contract contains a pay protection for that

Just to give an example (I’m totally making this up), let’s say that a flight attendant is scheduled to work a trip starting at 6AM tomorrow, from Miami to Los Angeles. Flight attendants need at least 10 hours of rest between flights. So let’s say a flight attendant picks up a quick Miami to Tampa to Miami turn at the last minute for this evening, but it’s clear that the flight will be delayed (since the inbound aircraft is hours late, or there’s a maintenance issue, or there’s a thunderstorm).

If they picked up that trip and flew it but returned after 8PM (10 hours before 6AM), they wouldn’t be able to fly the trip the following day, but they’d still get paid for both trips.

American threatens flight attendants for this behavior

American states that crew scheduling seniors are now examining each and every last minute trip pick up that has resulted in pay protection, to determine whether flight attendants intentionally manufactured an “illegal” sequence in order to get pay for the trip.

The company will examine when the trip was picked up by the flight attendant, when the delay began, and what the crew knew and when. The company’s position is that just because the delay hasn’t been updated, doesn’t mean the crew was unaware of the inevitable. The company considers this to be theft, and is threatening to take away pay, call flight attendants into their manager’s office, and potentially take other disciplinary action.

The company is encouraging flight attendants to only pick up trips that they’re confident that they can legally fly, and flight attendants will have to justify their decision with “factual data” if they get pay protection.

This is quite a threat against flight attendants…

Many of us passengers can attest to how frustrating American’s rolling flight delays are, and what a bad job the airline typically does with keeping people updated with delays. So in some way, I have to respect the hustle of some flight attendants for taking advantage of American’s poor communication during delays.

Now, I can’t help but think that this is more of an empty threat than anything else, though I certainly could be wrong:

• Is this really such a widespread problem that it’s worth addressing in this way? Is this happening among tens of people, or hundreds of people, or…?
• It seems kind of challenging for American to prove intent here
• If this is such a big problem, why doesn’t American update its software to not let flight attendants bid on these kinds of trips? It seems like American should be deciding how realistic it is for a flight attendant to bid on a trip without missing their next trip, rather than leaving it to the individual flight attendant
• Flight attendant morale at American is at an all-time low, as flight attendants are still waiting on a new contract (which they deserve); is the airline trying to make labor relations even worse?

I suspect this is primarily about trying to make flight attendants scared about this behavior going forward, but I guess we’ll see. If the company does take disciplinary action against flight attendants, I imagine the union will have a lot to say.

Bottom line

American is accusing some flight attendants of theft, after bidding on last minute trips with rolling delays. The airline claims that some flight attendants have intentionally picked up last minute trips shortly before other trips, in situations where they knew the flight would be delayed. This triggered pay protection, meaning flight attendants would be paid for both trips.

What do you make of American’s threat to flight attendants?