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This question is about flight attendant salaries.
Why aren't flight attendants paid for boarding?
Flight attendants are not paid for boarding to help airlines save money and lower ticket and in-flight purchases for customers. Traditionally most airlines have conducted business this way. However, Delta has recently changed its policy and started paying flight attendants for boarding.
Presently, for all other airlines, cabin crews usually get paid for their time once the aircraft door closes. They are not paid for the 30 to 50 minutes when passengers are boarding, despite this being a busy and sometimes stressful time.
Flight attendants receive some payment from the time they arrive at airports until the time they leave the airport at the end of a one- to five-day trip. However, it averages around $2 an hour. Not to mention, the actual hourly pay doesn't start until an aircraft pulls back from the gate, even though they are legally required to be on the plane before then.
Last year Delta became the only airline to start paying flight attendants during the time that passengers are boarding a plane. The rate of pay during boarding will be 50% of regular wages. The hourly rate to flight attendants during boarding begins 40 minutes after departure, 45 minutes for a domestic widebody, and 50 minutes for a transoceanic flight.
Other airlines, such as Alaska Airlines, are also considering changing boarding pay policies for their flight crew. This is especially true since airline boarding procedures and protocols have become much more laborious for flight crew in a post Covid-19 world.
Dealing with difficult passengers during delays and cancellations results in extra time at the airports, something currently not covered in their regular hourly pay.
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