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.
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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 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.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
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