Delta Air Lines will begin paying its flight attendants during boarding – a first for the major U.S. airline. However the change didn’t come across ease-fully, it took some 160,000+ people to express their dissatisfaction to kickstart this monumental change.
Now flight attendants will be paid for boarding rather than when all the passengers are seated and the plane’s doors close. The change is expected to increase Delta flight attendants’ wages by several thousand dollars a year.
Delta Air Lines has confirmed that the changes will come into effect on June 2 2022. An additional memo to flight attendants from the airline said the new pay “further recognizes how important your role is on board to ensuring a welcoming, safe and on-time start to each flight.”
It took for an online petition urging people to stand in solidarity with flight attendants who were not being paid for a major part of their role.
The petition, which today stands at almost 170,000 signatures, was launched by former flight attendant Domenica Rohrborn. Within the petition are several points that encourage against flight attendants’ ‘free’ labor.
The petition states that because of this ‘free’ time “airlines can manipulate us as much as they would like. This makes us work longer hours, keeps us away from our homes longer, and puts significantly more stress on our bodies, and physical and mental health.”
The petition also noted that pilots are also not compensated for this time. One user commented under the petition “I’m a Flight attendant and years are being taken off my life from boarding”.
The change comes as the airline plans to increase boarding time for single-aisle or “narrow-body” planes from 35 minutes to 40 minutes, which Delta predicts will increase the percentage of flights that depart on time.
Another point to take into consideration, there have been conversations about unionizing Delta’s flight attendants. Unlike the likes of other airlines, Delta’s flight attendants and pilots aren’t in a union.
The Association of Flight Attendants proudly took credit for the change in boarding pay, having been preparing a campaign at Delta Air Lines for the last two years. “This new policy is the direct result of our organizing,” the union said. “As we get closer to filing for our union vote, management is getting nervous.”
Carpet_bomb_furries on May 4th, 2022 at 20:35 UTC »
Airline pilot here.
Crews (cabin and cockpit) are only paid for the moments when the plane is sealed up off the gate. All the other time - TSA, hotel shuttles, boarding, deplaning, layovers, is unpaid. Well maybe not exactly unpaid, most get about $2/hr for the entire span of time away from base… but you get what I mean. A 12-hour day working 3-4 flights can end up being 5-6 hours of pay.
Pilots fortunately have rock-solid unions and have bargained for high pay rates to kind of make up for this… flight attendants, however, get POOPED ON constantly by the airlines. Low pay, constant rescheduling, their work contracts are frequently violated by the company with no remorse. I used to work for a regional airline, the flight attendants made about $20-25K a year spending 20 nights a month in hotels, working 5-6 days a month more than they were originally scheduled/awarded.
DAL is paying FA’s about half their rate during boarding, this is a fantastic watershed moment for the industry and I applaud it - but the fact is that these FA’s should be paid more and should have been getting this pay for decades.
Id say us pilots should be paid, too, as we are “working” up front to set the flight up and doing a lot of tasks, but again the FA’s need all they can get right now and id rather put weight into supporting them.
FluffyBat9210 on May 4th, 2022 at 19:07 UTC »
Do you ever read something and go "Wait... you mean that's not how it's always been?!"
Gosh, I always feel bad for flight attendants at the gate, getting swarmed by passengers the second they show up, and once boarding starts oh boy...
EmmaLouLove on May 4th, 2022 at 18:34 UTC »
Wait, flight attendance have not been getting paid while passengers are boarding? How can this be? This would be like not paying restaurant workers, who check in customers, until they are able to be seated.