United Airlines is once again targeting flight attendants who it thinks are using their seniority to bid for trips to coveted international destinations without any intention of working the flights, and selling them to junior coworkers who would otherwise be stuck on reserve or working domestic trips.
In the last few months, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), which represents United’s crew members, says it has seen a “significant increase” in the number of its members who are being terminated by United for alleged trip trading violations.
The union says it fought long and hard to give flight attendants the flexibility to swap trips and days off with coworkers, and that the union even gave up economic value within their contract for this level of freedom.
One thing that United doesn’t allow, however, is for flight attendants to use their bidding privileges as a side hustle in which they sell trips or days off to coworkers.
The main way this is done is through trip ‘parking,’ which is the slang term for veteran crew members bidding for sought-after trips that they intend to sell to another flight attendant who isn’t senior enough to get this trip through bidding.
Flight attendants who are desperate for a specific day off or want to visit a premium international destination like Paris or Rome are willing to hand over their hard-earned cash to another crew member who has what they want.
This isn’t the first time that United has clamped down on what it describes as “unethical” or “dishonest” trip trading. In fact, in 2019, the airline created its own software to analyse trip trades and flag suspicious swaps.
Anna Palova was one of 28 veteran flight attendants who were terminated by United in 2020 over alleged trip parking. Anna sued United on the grounds of age discrimination and the case is still ongoing.
The AFA-CWA says it plans to “push back on every case,” and demand that recently terminated flight attendants be reinstated.
“We demand a proper investigation, we demand a proper notice of this new reality, we demand a decision be made on fact and not suspicion, and we demand progressive discipline be adhered to when and ONLY IF wrongdoing is truly established,” the union said in a recent memo.
In order to make it known that a flight attendant who is advertising a trip or days off on the trip trading platform wants money, code words are used, such as “cookies”, “hugs”, and “kisses.”
Flight attendants who are interested in buying the trip then contact the seller directly, settling on a price, before the swap is processed.
Not every airline actually has an issue with flight attendants trading trips in exchange for cash. While American Airlines, Delta, and United Airlines all strictly prohibit trading trips for cash, Southwest Airlines has no such concern.
Alaska Airlines, Frontier, and JetBlue also have no formal policy either for or against trading trips for cash.
This could be addressed rather simply by using the same system my husbands employer used for open job slots. If the person that won changed their mind, and it was far enough in advance, the bidding would be reopened. If it was short notice the company would do a call out for coverage starting with the next most senior employee and working down the seniority list till they found someone who wanted it. Not letting the employees decide who gets it removes the opportunities to monetize it in the first place.
Not sure why the company cares so much. The flight has no operational impact regarding delays, and the flight gets a younger crew member.
Airlines crews outside of the USA constantly poke fun at the US airlines by saying your grandparents serve you on international flights.
Perhaps, then, an overhaul of senior bidding needs to be revised? Or the FAA needs to instate medical fitness like how pilots have, and nearly the rest of the world flight crews.
Get a grip, it isn’t about age. It’s about unethical practices while you are at work. You cannot setup a side business at 99.9% of jobs I’ve held….. But I live in normal world.
Put the swinging and ditching back into F/A recurrent training and you see the change in F/A. Because some of them will not pass and if you can’t do the job physically then its time.
Because people who bid routes with no intention of flying them, and then selling them to people who couldn’t otherwise hold them perverts the whole seniority-based work assignment system.
That’s some scumbag stuff, that nobody should be okay with
The company doesn’t like anyone to profit off them!
United Airlines prohibited paid trades trades in the ’70’s. This is nothing new.
if the seniors can’t make the trips, they can resign and get off the payroll. they’re EXPENSIVE labor. And the most senior FA’s -like the top 5 in each fleet – aren’t necessarily passenger-friendly in my experience. For them to be able to sit on the payroll and supplement their income with plum trips isn’t fair. Yes, they’ve earned the right to pick the plum routes. But they’re also paid a premium for their service years and selling access for even more cash is double dipping at the expense of the other FA’s and the airline itself. Retire if you can’t fly the routes.