A veteran United Airlines flight attendant who was terminated by the carrier in February 2020 over allegations that she was operating a side hustle selling sought-after trips to junior coworkers has won the right to sue her former employer after a five-year legal battle.
Anna Palova had worked for United for 28 years and had a perfect attendance and performance record until she was suddenly put under investigation along with a group of other long-serving flight attendants, accused of illegally selling their trips.
United accused Anna of using her seniority to bid for coveted trips to glamorous international destinations with no intention of ever working these assignments. Instead, she allegedly ‘parked’ these trips to give to her coworkers… a practice that often involves an exchange of money.
Just like other major US carriers, United Airlines operates with a strict seniority system. Each month, flight attendants bid for their desired trips and days off, and the more senior you are, the more likely you are to secure your first choice.
This seniority-based bidding system has created a long-established underground economy in which veteran crew members can win the most desirable trips and then sell them to junior coworkers. At United Airlines, this is known as ‘parking’ a trip.
The practice of parking a trip is, however, highly controversial, and at some airlines, including United, parking and trip trading for cash or gifts is strictly prohibited.
In March 2019, a little less than a year before Anna was terminated, United issued a warning to flight attendants, telling them that the airline operated a ‘zero tolerance’ policy to trip parking and would be forced to investigate crew members if the practice continued.
Just a day later, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) told its members at United that the airline had, in fact, already started to investigate parking allegations.
United’s corporate security department started working on a computer algorithm to analyze trip trades between flight attendants with the aim of spotting suspicious activity that might indicate illegal parking.
Anna was one of 28 flight attendants who were highlighted by this algorithm as engaging in “problematic trades.” In mid-February 2020, Anna was called into a disciplinary meeting, during which United concluded that her explanations were “unconvincing.” On February 28, 2020, Anna was terminated.
Anna started working on a legal case to challenge her dismissal, arguing that United had deliberately targeted older flight attendants at a time when the airline was desperately trying to save money as the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic started to be felt on the airline industry.
In her lawsuit, Anna accused United of age discrimination, but a district court in Texas threw out her lawsuit, siding with United, who argued that the Railway Labor Act precluded her right to sue.
Anna appealed the verdict to the Court of Appeal for the Fifth Circuit and last week, she won a significant legal victory, overturning the district court’s verdict, allowing her to sue United before a jury.
The appeal court came to their conclusion not because they necessarily believed that Anna had been parking trips but because younger flight attendants who had also been accused of illegal trip trading had not been sacked for their indiscretions.
Last month, I exclusively revealed how American Airlines was launching a new crackdown on veteran flight attendants illegally trading trips for cash after investigators found evidence that crew members were using secret code words to disguise their activities.
Putting desirable trips on the official trading platform, flight attendants use words like cookies, hugs, and kisses to indicate that they are only looking to trade the trip in exchange for money.
For the time being, it looks like American Airlines is only warning flight attendants about its position on trip trading for cash, although it has warned crew members that they could lose their bidding privileges if the activity continues.
Trip trading for cash is also banned at Delta Air Lines, but the activity isn’t policed at several major US carriers, including Alaska Airlines, Southwest, Spirit, and JetBlue.
