Many airline passengers probably don’t think much about how flight attendants can bid for the trips that they are assigned, and ultimately, how they can trade them with other flight attendants.
Along those lines, United Airlines seems to have an increasingly big problem with senior flight attendants selling trips to colleagues for profit — essentially, think of them as trip “pimps.” Unfortunately this practice is catching up with some employees at the airline, and is getting them fired.
Why flight attendant trip trading has become problematic
Let’s start with a little bit of background. Flight attendants at virtually all airlines in the United States 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.
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 San Francisco to Singapore flight is generally going to be more senior than the crew on a San Francisco to Los Angeles flight. It’s about the number of flight hours they can rack up in a trip, how desirable the destination is, etc.
If you need to fly 100 hours per month, it’s easier to take four long haul trips per month, rather than taking 50 short haul flights per month. 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. On the surface, this undermines the whole point of the seniority system, and it’s unfair to those playing by the rules.
What’s interesting is that not all airlines actually have rules against trading trips for cash. This is the policy at the “big three” US carriers (American, Delta, and United) but at Alaska, Frontier, JetBlue, and Southwest, there are no rules against trading trips for cash.
United firing flight attendants for increased trip trading
PYOK reports how United is increasingly cracking down on flight attendants selling trips to their colleagues. In recent times, the AFA-CWA, which is the union representing United flight attendants, says it has seen a “significant increase” in the number of flight attendants who are being terminated for violating the carrier’s rules on trip trading.
The union claims it’s going to “push back on every case” of flight attendants being fired, and demand they be reinstated, at least if they believe it wasn’t with cause. Per a memo:
“We demand a proper investigation, we demand a proper notice of this new reality, we demand a decision be made on fact and not suspicion, and we demand progressive discipline be adhered to when and ONLY IF wrongdoing is truly established.”
I would think that United would only be terminating flight attendants if they’re positive that they’re engaged in this practice. At the same time, there’s definitely some financial upside here for the airline. Flight attendants are paid based on their seniority, so it’s less expensive for a flight to be staffed by junior flight attendants than senior flight attendants. Of course go figure it’s the senior flight attendants here who would be fired.
Bottom line
United’s flight attendant union is warning that an increasing number of members are being fired for trip trading. The idea is that senior flight attendants get the lucrative trips, and then sell them to more junior colleagues. The senior flight attendants get paid some money to stay home, while the junior flight attendants get to travel somewhere fun, and possibly still get paid more than they otherwise would, even after paying off their colleague.
While airlines like Southwest have no rules against this, United strictly prohibits it, given that it undermines the point of the seniority system.
What do you make of this trip trading for money phenomenon?
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