Flight Attendant Pay

blakman7

blakman7

Well-Known Member
Does anyone out there know how flight attendants are paid? I mean, do they get paid with a certain rate an hour per month or can they bid 40 hours a week? Any info or links to the answers would be greatly appreciated.
 
blakman7 said:
Does anyone out there know how flight attendants are paid? I mean, do they get paid with a certain rate an hour per month or can they bid 40 hours a week? Any info or links to the answers would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...


Good question.

My girlfriend is wondering the same. She's planning on becomming one but theres not much advertisement of pay.
 
Yeah there are pages about what they make but there isn't a page that tells you anything about how they are paid in terms of hours per week or month. Like pilots can't bid to work 40 hours a week so I am wondering if it is the same for FA's.
 
I doubt that FAs can work 40 hours a week, either. We're more or less on the same schedules. Not sure if they have a minimum hour guarantee like pilots or not, but they still only get paid block out to block in (or trip values, or whatever that particular airline does). I'm GUESSING they still have a min guarantee since there are reserve FAs.
 
F/As are paid in the same way pilots are. They are paid their hourly rate per block hour, or per 'trip', however the airline determines 'hours'. Read the section on the JC main page about how pilots are paid, and it's the same for F/As.

As for the specific pay rate most majors are currently starting at about $17-$18 an hour. When I started at AA in 2001, stating rate was around $20 or $21, but that was before concessions. Current majors hiring right now are United, Continental, Southwest, JetBlue, and probably some others that I'm forgetting.

Flying 40 hours a week on a consistant basis is pretty unrealistic. While F/As are not covered per the FAA in same way pilots are for 30 in 7, 7 day, etc, depending on union contracts there may be block time limitations. Even if there are NO block time limitations, flying anything over 120 hours a month is realistically not possible. Even 120 hours a month is REALLY pushing it duty-wise. Not to mention fatigue-wise. 120 hours a month pretty much means no time off, no life. I once flew 113 hours once in a month at Eagle. Once. I never did it again. 70-80 hours a month is pretty comfortable, 90 is starting to push it. 40 hours a week is 120 hours a month, but it gets fatiguing REAL fast and I you want to have a life outside of work and not be a walking zombie you're not going to be able to keep that schedule for long.

I hope the above made sense, I'm very tired today and if I didn't make sense let me know and I'll answer tomorrow after I've had some sleep.
 
At the airline that I used to work for our F/A's had a monthly gaurantee of 75 hours a month. Per their contract they had pretty much same restriictions as the pilots, they could only work 30 hours per seven days, but there duty time limitations were different. But again it is going to be based on what they bargained for. Also, they were able to put in for open time to meke overtime on there montly guarantee and trip rates.
 
blakman7 said:
Does anyone out there know how flight attendants are paid? I mean, do they get paid with a certain rate an hour per month or can they bid 40 hours a week? Any info or links to the answers would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Well, they might not get paid much, but at least they get to hang out with pilots all day long.

[/joking]

;)
 
FA's at a regional typically start out around $15-$17/hr and $1.30-$1.60 per diem. They will typically credit around 100 hours per month pay (max) and make around $350-$500 in per diem per month.

The senior FA's at a small regional I know of top out at around $30/hr. I know of an ex-TWA, ex-AA who was making $52/hr at AA before furlough. And the situation described above, with AA not wanting to recall because of dropping recall rights is true according to her.
 
I think there may be some confusion by the poster about airline pay/schedules versus the normal job world. In the airline world, you should take everything you know about normal pay and schedules (40-hour work week, 9-5 schedule) and throw it out the window. In the airline world, pilots and flight attendants are paid by the flight hour. So when we say our hourly wage, it means the hours we are actually flying. Different from a normal job, who is paid for hours worked. There are many times when we are working, but not getting our hourly pay for it.

Let's say Person A works for a bank. She works Monday through Friday, 9-5. A 40-hour work week. Person B is a flight attendant. She works a four-day schedule per week, meaning one four-day long trip, with three days off. This trip is probably worth somewhere from 15-25 hours of pay. However, she will be gone in the range of 72 hours that week. Remember, we are at work around the clock when on a trip. Time in a hotel is "work" time, even if we are resting.

So like Amber said above, all flight attendants are paid for "hourly" work, by the flight hour. I think the only variation would be flight attendants who are paid a monthly or yearly salary, but I've never heard of this in the airline world.
 
Bigey said:
My girlfriend is wondering the same. She's planning on becomming one but theres not much advertisement of pay.
Click to expand...


Just being a flight attendant is pay enough for some...

I know back in the day you used to be able to make a living off of being a FA but from what I have seen FAs tend to be one of three type of people.

One, Just graduated from Highschool/college and not sure what to do with life so why not see the world/few states around you and be a FA for a few years till you figure out what to do with life? Living with 6 other FAs in a two or three bedroom apartment isn't that bad.

Two, Husband/wife is loaded or they already have some other sort of income to pay for their BMW X5 they drive back and forth from their fancy house to the airport so why not take a job that pays $15,000 a year and lets you see the world or at least a few of the airports and hotels in surrounding states?

Three, Been doing it for 25 years and have made it into a career and a fairly well paying one. Still enjoy the job or either can't find anything else that pays as much so don't want to leave. Lives every day knowing furlough is only a flight away though.

Just what I have noticed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top