American Cracks Down On Flight Attendants Profiting Off Trip Trading

American Airlines has issued a new round of warnings to flight attendants, as some employees at the airline have clearly turned trip trading into a side hustle…

Why flight attendant trip trading has become problematic

Let’s start with a little bit of background. Flight attendants at virtually all US airlines are assigned their schedules based on seniority. They can bid on their schedule for each month, and then a computer system will assign them trips based on their preferences (and other metrics), in order of seniority.

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As you’d expect, some trips are much more senior than others, as you’ll notice as a passenger when boarding certain flights. 😉 Like, the crew on a Philadelphia to Rome flight is generally going to be more senior than the crew on a Philadelphia to Charlotte flight. It’s about the number of flight hours they can rack up in a trip, how desirable the destination is, etc.

Once flight attendants are issued their schedules, they’re able to trade trips, again, within certain parameters. The idea is that as long as all flights are covered, it doesn’t matter who works what flight. Fair enough, right?

Well, this is where the issue comes into play. Some senior flight attendants have turned their lucrative seniority into a side hustle. Essentially, they’ll bid on lucrative trips that they have no intention of flying, just to be able to sell them to more junior flight attendants. Yes, essentially some senior flight attendants are looking to get paid not to fly.

The idea is that it’s a win-win. A junior flight attendant can often get a lot of flight hours on these long haul trips, and then part of that pay goes back to the senior flight attendant.

It’s worth emphasizing that this practice is strictly prohibited, and it’s something that both management and unions agree on. After all, it undermines the whole point of the seniority system, and it’s unfair to those playing by the rules.

I guess the flight attendants trading trips were just taking business advice from former American Chief Commercial Vasu Raja, who always said that “the schedule is the product.” 😉

American issues stern warning on trip trading hustle

PYOK reports how American has sent out a memo to flight attendants, once again warning them that they’re not allowed to buy, sell, or barter their trips. Per the memo:

“Trips are assigned by the company and are not personal property. They cannot be bought, sold or brokered. You may not offer or accept money or other items of value – directly or through coded language – to broker, buy, sell or trade trips with other flight attendants. When someone tries to inappropriately profit by picking up a trip or through selling or trading, it violates the intent and integrity of our bidding systems and our standards of business conduct.”

Here’s an interesting angle, though. Flight attendants will often post trip trades in American’s internal system for other flight attendants to see, and the airline has figured out that flight attendants are using certain code words to indicate that they’re looking to trade their trips for money.

So just as someone might put a “rose” emoji on Grindr (or did back in the day?) to indicate that they’re looking for money, American flight attendants are reportedly using code words like “cookies,” “hugs,” “kisses,” and “thanks.”

It’s perfectly fair that both management and the union would crack down on this, because it really undermines the whole point of the seniority system. What a sad state of affairs when junior flight attendants essentially have to pay their colleagues for semi-desirable trips.

The airline is threatening that anyone found to be abusing the system could have their schedule bidding revoked, meaning they’d basically be in the same position as a new hire flight attendant, and would just be assigned a schedule. I’m curious if any flight attendants have actually been punished in this way so far.

Bottom line

American is warning flight attendants not to trade their trips for money. While trip trading between flight attendants is fine, both management and the union take issue with flight attendants selling their trips to one another, since it undermines the purpose of the seniority system.

It’s interesting how the airline has apparently identified the code words that are frequently being used for this practice.

What do you make of this trip trading for money phenomenon?