How One Junior Delta Flight Attendant Turned Flying Into a $78,000 Salary

Becoming a flight attendant at a U.S. airline can be pretty rough in the first few years at the very least. Your hourly pay is low, and you spend your life on ‘reserve’ with no fixed schedule and no knowing whether you’ll actually be assigned a flight.

And, of course, no flight means no pay. And that’s on top of the fact that you’ve probably spent six weeks in training with just your accommodation and some meals paid for, no take-home pay to speak of.

It’s probably unsurprising then that many flight attendants, in the United States at least, are in it for the long haul… The whole point is to work your way through the pay steps and build up your seniority until you get to the point where you can largely dictate your own schedule and take home a decent wage.

Thankfully, one flight attendant at Delta Air Lines explains how life at a big U.S. carrier can pretty quickly start earning you cash… just so long as you’re prepared to put the hours in.

After just three and a half years at the Atlanta-based airline, the flight attendant explained how she managed to clear $78,000 (before taxes and deductions) in the last 12 months.

Here’s the detailed breakdown of how the flight attendant made her wages in 2025:

1. My pay scale for the first 6 months of 2025 was at $40.05 and $44.36 for the last 6 months of 2025. (This is step 3 and 4 of the pay scale.)
2. Boarding pay was $13.35 for the first 6 months of 2025 and $14.79 for the last 6 months of 2025. (Domestic flights only. Slightly more for transoceanic flights.)
3. There was one month where the raise took effect and my pay rate was $41.65 and boarding pay was $13.88. 
4. The domestic/international per diem was at $3.30, the transoceanic one at $3.55. 
5. Flight leader pay is an extra $3.50. 
6. Small line items like international pay, holding pay, reroute pay, holiday pay, SAFA pay, training/CQ pay, galley pay, PPT, vacation, etc. are included in the overall compensation. However, it does not include profit sharing. 
7. I did not pick up trips when IPY was offered as I was already working or had already other non-work commitments. So, what I earned this year is a realistic picture of what a junior FA can make. 
8. I work mainly high-credit domestic 2-3-day rotations as flight leader with a few transoceanic trips sprinkled in. I was also back on Adays starting in April.

Understandably, you’re probably wondering what some of these terms mean. Let’s break it down:

• IPY is Delta’s version of incentive pay but, of course, to earn this, you have to have available days to work outside of your normal schedule.
• PPT stands for ‘Paid Personal Time’ which covers socks days and other designated days.
• SAFA stands for ‘Special Assignment Flight Attendant’, which could be a whole range of reasons, ranging from VIP charters and brand ambassador work, to service standard testing.
• Adays are Delta’s version of reserve days.

That comes to a total of $73,262.64, but when you add Delta’s generous profit sharing, the flight attendant ended up earning $78,000 in 2025.

There are, however, a couple of things that anyone new to the aviation industry needs to be aware of. First, the amount you end up taking home can vary significantly from month to month – especially if you are on reserve life and your flying hours aren’t guaranteed.

The second is that to earn a decent wage, at least for the first few years, you’ll need to be willing to put in the hours. This flight attendant ended up working an average of 106.3 duty hours per month, with an average of 86.97 flights, although, by some standards, that isn’t even that much compared to how much some flight attendants work.

It’s also worth noting that, as one of the first U.S. airlines to introduce ‘boarding pay’ for flight attendants, it’s making a difference to wages but not a huge one. This flight attendant earned $3,240.95 in boarding pay despite the fact that she bids for 2-3 day rotations, which have more boarding periods.

Final takeaway

Finally, once a flight attendant joins an airline, it’s incredibly difficult to move to another carrier because you are essentially starting afresh at the very bottom. In other words: pick your airline wisely!

Junior Delta FA Compensation and Breakdown
byu/Cassie_Bowden inflightattendants