TA FAQ — Contract 2021

Your TA Questions Answered!

Retro Pay

Yes. Flight Attendants will have the option to adjust our 401K contribution levels the same as we can for profit sharing checks. That means we can set whatever portion of the retro we want to go into the 401K up to the IRS annual maximums which is $23,500 for those under 50 with higher catch up rates beyond age 50.
We negotiated Retro Pay that takes into account the number of months (47 months through July 2025 bid month) past the amendable date, not a signing bonus. With the UAL Pilots and at other airlines, management calls it a one time payment or signing bonus for accounting purposes.
The difference between a signing bonus and a retro payment is a signing bonus is a payment that is not calculated based on a formula increases that should have been earned during bargaining. It is often a far smaller amount. Retro pay, in contrast, is calculated based on a formula of backpay for increases over the period of negotiations. Our retro pay formula is based on same methodology as the pilots and other work groups but has a better formula.
It doesn’t matter what they call it, it is Retro and the value of Retro in our agreement is the highest of all crew contracts. It is paid in a one time payment so the IRS withholding rate is 22% as opposed to the higher withholding rate on your regular paycheck.
Retro Calculator >
If you are employed as a Flight Attendant at United, regardless of leave status but excluding a management position, you will be eligible to receive Retro on all profit sharing eligible earnings from September 2021 through July 2025.
Profit sharing eligible earnings include base pay, sick pay, vacation pay, holiday pay, hourly incentive payments, overrides and premiums, but shall exclude expense reimbursements, profit sharing payments, pension payments, imputed income or other similar awards or allowances.

Compensation

The minimum pay and credit in 6.A.3 was clarified and maintains current practice of 5 hours pay and credit per duty period, not per calendar day.
Yes! Flight Attendants flying international pairings (outside of the continental U.S. and Canada) shall receive an hourly override of $2.00 per hour, prorated, for each block hour actually flown and for all credited time except sick/occupational leave and vacation.
Yes. The Incentive program remains intact. The new pay scale will be available in the Full TA.
The short answer is our Tentative Agreement pays significantly more than the SW Agreement. If our TA is ratified, the Southwest Flight Attendants will be the only major group to not receive boarding pay. Southwest Flight Attendants get paid in Trips for Pay (TFP). They are not paid by flight or block hours like United and most other Flight Attendants. That makes comparisons subject to misunderstanding.
The TFP system at Southwest is designed to pay them more for short trips than for long trips. The conversion they use on their network claims the “what if” comparison is $89 an hour. But because they get paid more for short trips than long trips the $89 only works on their network.
When applying their pay system to the networks at United, American or Delta, the pay would be significantly lower. It would be in the low to mid-80s, and would not include Boarding Pay. That means that if you apply their TFP rates to the major airline networks they would actually be the fifth highest paid carrier.
So what then if Southwest Flight Attendants got paid like United or other major network carriers got paid? Again the answer is the same, they would come in 5th in pay because Southwest has shorter flight segments and twice as many take offs and landings. If they got our block pay plus Boarding Pay they would receive significantly more on their network. That means our Boarding Pay plus our block pay on their network would be far higher than their TFP with no Boarding Pay.
When doing their industry comparisons they had a methodological flaw in that they used their short flights to determine pay, but the number of boardings to determine boarding pay value. But, they were also the first to achieve a new contract in this round of bargaining and it makes sense that they are now fifth because each contract should build upon the next.
To make a long story short, when properly compared Southwest wage rates are 5th in the industry when compared to American, Alaska, Delta, and the United TA - all of which have Boarding Pay. Additionally, when their TFP is properly applied to our carriers, they would also be 5th. We are glad the Southwest Flight Attendants have negotiated a pay method that works for them, but we also need to realize it would be a pay cut for us when compared to our TA.

Boarding Pay

You will get boarding pay for each scheduled boarding of the aircraft you are boarding. If the Company requires the passengers deplane and reboard either the same aircraft or different one, you will get paid for the additional boarding(s).
If a flight is boarded and the flight subsequently cancels, the Flight Attendant shall receive boarding pay for the boarding. We also maintained holding pay that applies before departure or after arrival.
We fought for ground pay during this bargaining. Fundamentally, just like we heard after the historic UAW agreements reached as a result of the Stand Up Strike in the fall of 2023 - “if you get everything you asked for, you weren’t demanding enough.” We were able to lock in Boarding Pay, which is part of ground pay, but management would not agree to any other blocks of pay.
Ground pay, like boarding pay, is negotiated along with wages and is part of the overall wage package. Moving to a full ground pay system would negatively impact the base flight hourly rates we were able to negotiate. Our base wage rates are important because they flow to every area of Agreement including vacation, training, rescheduling, sick, etc.
The other Flight Attendant groups who have negotiated these provisions also achieved Boarding Pay for this round of negotiations. That allows us to make inroads into getting paid for all our time while still achieving the wage increases we secured in this tentative agreement. We will use this as a building block in future rounds of bargaining. Improvements start with a demand.

Hotels

We modeled much of our sourcing language off the pilot language, incorporating the key provisions in our hotel selection process. We did not utilize the term “core business district” which the pilots use, as in many cities, the financial area is not the desirable location.
Absolutely not. We have a greater role in hotel selections under the language in the TA, and will be staying in better hotels in more desirable locations. These provisions cost the company tens of millions of dollars over the course of the Contract, reflecting the priority we gave this issue.
The term “business class” hotel is not a useful term in the days of low-end business hotels and does not capture the quality of hotels we deserve to stay in. Under the TA language, we can submit the requests for proposals for any hotels, including premium hotels (except for super high-end luxury hotels like the Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton hotels). We would not want to be limited to business-class hotels.
The full implementation timeline will be coming out next week, but all new hotel contracts after the date of signing will utilize the new language. Where the company is locked into contracts they will not be required to break contracts. Our hotel committee is monitoring the activity to ensure that new contracts are not signed during the ratification period.

Benefits

Pre-merger Continental and pre-merger CMI receive proportionate increases to their pension plans to get the equivalent value of the 1% 401(k) increase.
This process will not start immediately. The period of calculation for the employer health care contribution will be from November to October to determine the company subsidy for the following calendar year. Given the time to program the changes, the counting period is not anticipated to begin until October 2026, which would apply to the 2028 benefits year.
Yes. Should a Flight Attendant not meet the minimum required for the employer's contribution for health care benefits, the Flight Attendant would pay the full premium for the coverage. They would still have healthcare coverage.
A Flight Attendant who has a known illness to the company, for example, a Flight Attendant returning from a medical leave, who may not have paid sick leave or FMLA coverage, would be covered by the special circumstances exception. This provision was negotiated to address exactly this type of situation, where, due to circumstances beyond their control, a Flight Attendant needed to reduce flying but may not otherwise qualify or want to take a leave of absence. In addition, any absences covered by paid or unpaid FMLA would count towards the 480 requirement.
Yes. Paid vacation time counts toward the 480 hour requirement. For example, if you have 60 hours of paid vacation, your minimum requirement remaining would be lowered to 420 hours for the remainder of the year.
Flight Attendants who do not reach their 480 hours will be required to cover the full premium of healthcare for the full following year. This is applied for the full year. The coverage will continue to be offered, you will not be switched to a COBRA coverage option.
Currently, the contract requires management to continue to offer retiree medical up until August 28, 2031. These provisions are provided to pre-merger UA Flight Attendants in the form of retiree medical and premerger CAL/CMI in the form of use of sick leave for a limited time as part of the merger process.

During this round of negotiations, we fought for retiree medical for all United Flight Attendants. While we were unsuccessful in this round of bargaining, we were able to extend the sunset date for a year. This will allow us more time to negotiate the issue during the next round of negotiations, when combined with our one year early opener. During those negotiations we will fight for improved retiree medical provisions for all Flight Attendants.

Reserve

Negotiations are a process of back and forth between the Company and the Union. The Company was adamantly opposed to RAPs but even when they began to consider them, wanted to take away our three hour call out and limit RAPs to major hubs. In the end the compromise was reached to include 14 hour call RAPs but preserving our three hour call out. Like any provision, establishing RAPs in the agreement will provide a foundation for improvements in future agreements.
Within a RAP, Reserves will be assigned according to the ordering of assignment is 8.C of the Agreement which assigns based on days of availability and TMAC order. That is the current language and will just be processed within the RAP. In the case of overlapping RAPs the company may make the assignment to the RAP that is most efficient, for example assigning it to the earlier RAP rather than a later RAP.
There is no provision for trading a RAP with another Reserve.
Absolutely not. If you want a 24 hour RAP you will not be assigned one unless you fail to bid or leave a standing bid. This is a simple process and every Reserve will be encouraged to have a standing bid on file which preferences a 14 hour RAP. A Reserve could volunteer for a 24 hour RAP but not be involuntarily assigned one.
The Reserve percentages should not increase due to the 14-hour availability, as the system forces the Company to use Ready Reserves more efficiently than it does today. RAPS have been successfully implemented at other carriers and have not caused the increase in Reserves that you are concerned about.
Yes! Between 1300 and 1400 on the last day off before a block of days of availability, a Reserve shall have the ability to pick up a pairing from Open Time that departs the following day. And yes, this option is unlimited. This process will be automated and occur on a first-come-first-served basis. The pairing must have a check-in of 0800 or earlier. After the trip is picked up, the Reserve will be released to report time.

Voting

New Flight Attendants who are scheduled to become an AFA Member (at least four months of flying for United) before the ballot closes will be able to vote during the entire period the ballot is open. The last new hire class to be eligible to vote on the TA is Class 2506 (Graduation Date: 3/27/25).
Flight Attendants who have been at United fewer than four months are not eligible to vote (considered “Apprentice” members). We encourage Flight Attendants in this situation to remain informed, ask questions and participate in our Union. This is about the future of all United Flight Attendants and the TA information is also an excellent opportunity to better know our contract so we can enforce it together.
No. Of course not. Only those votes cast will be counted to determine whether or not the TA is ratified.
Voting down the TA does not guarantee improvements as it would simply direct the parties back to the bargaining table. Once we get back to the bargaining table, either party can make proposals. There is no reason to believe that United management would be willing to put more economic resources into this agreement. They have delayed negotiations for years and we believe they would be comfortable with further delay. They will save over a billion dollars a year that this agreement is not in place, plus retro pay.
The overall value was determined by what we could force the company to put into the agreement and pattern bargaining in the industry. Just because Flight Attendants vote down an agreement does not automatically change management’s position nor industry realities. Given the challenges facing the airline industry today given reduced booking and economic uncertainty, management’s position would likely harden.
Our experience is that the total economic value of the agreement does not change.
Looking at other Tentative Agreements that have been voted down, they typically utilize the same overall economic framework. That certainly has been the case with the Alaska and Southwest agreements. Typically management will save some money for the delayed period, in our case roughly a billion dollars per year of further delay. That means some targeted issues can get fixed but the overall pot of money does not increase much.
All this means that revised tentative agreements are going to adhere to the same framework, with perhaps reallocating the money to try and satisfy certain priorities. We would use this Tentative Agreement as the starting point, so would normally keep the items that were agreed to as the basis. Provisions which the top of the company indicated had to be in the agreement such as the 480 threshold for employer subsidized medical insurance are unlikely to change in any subsequent Tentative Agreement, just as we would not change many of our core positions such as on PBS and other concessions.
Our position on Retro pay would not change as it is one of our core demands. If negotiations took another year, management would likely oppose adding additional money towards the retro pool of $595 million. We would continue to fight for as much Retro pay as possible.
Obviously, in the event of an economic downturn, or external factors such as war, pandemics, etc, the airline’s financial situation could drastically change, making them question offering a $600 million dollar retro payment. There are a lot of pressures today which create uncertainty in the airline industry, such as reduced bookings from Europe and Canada, conflict in the middle east potentially impacting price of fuel, and overall economic uncertainty.

But we cannot predict the future or make promises either way. We can only make logical assessments based on experience as well as a realistic assessment of the Company’s likely behavior.

Scheduling

No, the PD request is for the day off, not for any particular trip. You can trade your schedule, and the PD request will only be processed if you have a trip on that day. The implementation committee will be tasked with working out detailed procedures.
A major change in the area of reassignments is now the four-hour clock will start at the time of the flight cancellation, not when you get a hold of crew scheduling. This limits crew scheduling’s ability to make reassignments. There is no change to the reassignment procedure regarding management’s ability to assign a trip within the reassignment window.
As part of the implementation of electronic notification, the plan is that the Flight Attendant would be able to choose from a list of options in a rescheduling situation. This would only be with the further development of an electronic notification system, which has Union involvement.
The basic provisions on reassignment remain unchanged; however, the four-hour clock now starts when the flight is canceled as opposed to when you reach crew scheduling.
While we still cannot “decline” reassignment in the TA, as is true today under 7.Q.3 (7.Q.2 in the TA) if at the time of notification Scheduling does not reassign or release you, then you are free from any further reassignment obligation unless you wish to be pay protected, in which case you would call between 6p-10p the day prior to departure for reassignment.
Although the proposal stayed on the table until the late stages of negotiations, we were not able to secure a sit rig in this round of bargaining.
The 8 pm time was chosen because it is less restrictive for most of the day and is a standardized time to allow pickups. We discussed the impact on early morning departures but the committee believed the benefits of the change outweighed the impact on those departures.

Frequently Asked Questions

Since the current contract became amendable on August 28, 2021 official U.S. Consumer Price Index (USCPI-U) data indicates that prices have increased by 17.5% through May of 2025 (latest available figures). This increase in prices compares to an average 26.7% increase in United Flight Attendant pay increases negotiated in the TA in year one. In addition, the new Boarding Pay component contained in the TA will mean United Flight Attendant’s first year pay rate increase will be approximately 34%. This is nearly double the level of price inflation that has occurred since the contract became amendable.
The language on hotels, including the hotel selection LOA, received a major rewrite as improving the quality of layover hotels was a major priority in these negotiations. A key part of the improvement was to dramatically improve the union hotel committee’s role in the selection of hotels. The company is now obligated to include our hotels in the requests for proposals, hotel inspections, and for consideration. If the parties don’t agree on the matter, the language specifies that the selection can go to an arbitrator.
With this new language, the term business class was too limiting, as business class can include a wide range of hotels catering to business travelers, which may not meet all of our standards. Under the new language, the company must include all hotels, except for the ultra-high-end hotels, such as the Four Seasons. Additionally, we kept many of the hotel standards, including the requirement for sit-down meals, etc.
The contract currently provides a grievance and arbitration process where if the company is violating the agreement the company can be forced to follow the contract and provide a monetary remedy for any violations. As part of the Tentative Agreement, we did a substantial rewrite of the grievance procedure to expedite the process of resolving disputes.

In addition to these provisions, the union was proposing a set remedy for certain scheduling violations in which the contract was violated but there may not have been an adequate remedy provided. We were unable to reach an agreement on the specific amounts, but agreed to language stating the company and union could include an economic component in such circumstances. Additionally, we agreed to language setting quarterly higher level meetings to address scheduling department compliance with the contract to address the underlying issues.
Videos, calculators, Q&As, and other education tools will be posted and continually updated on the contract website. Also, trained InfoReps will be available to answer questions throughout the month of July. We will ensure everyone has access to all of the information necessary to cast an informed vote.
Addressing lengthy sits was a major topic of discussion in these negotiations. Our position was to secure a sit rig which would both penalize the Company and provide compensation to Flight Attendants. Although the issue was on the table to the end of bargaining, the Company was unwilling to agree to this provision.
The full language will be posted for all members to review during the week of June 9 and as the in-person TA Roadshows begin.
The TA provides that the United Flight Attendants have priority for the jumpseat. Both the current book and the TA provide that authorized management can ride the jumpseat if not utilized by a United Flight Attendant. That has not changed.
What has changed is actually an improvement, which allows United to reach a reciprocal jumpseat agreement with another carrier in which case we would be able to take their unoccupied jumpseat and they would be able to ride our jumpseat but only if no United Flight Attendant was seeking to occupy the jumpseat. If we do reach an agreement with another carrier, that would expand commuting and pleasure travel options for our workgroup.
But to be clear the language is carefully written to only allow the specified groups to occupy the jumpseat and does not allow any other employee group, including pilots, to occupy our jumpseat. The language is also very specific that United Flight Attendants have absolute priority for jumpseat usage.