Many people don’t realize that flight attendants don’t start earning their main hourly pay until the airplane doors are closed and the flight is ready to take off. All the time they spend welcoming passengers on board, storing luggage, and carrying out important safety checks during boarding isn’t counted on the official pay clock.
This surprising reality isn’t by chance—it’s the product of airline pay systems shaped and negotiated over many decades. To really grasp how flight attendants are paid, it’s important to look beyond the advertised hourly rate and dig into the specifics of airline contracts and industry practices.
When airlines advertise flight attendant positions, they usually quote a competitive hourly rate. However, that headline number often omits exactly what that “hour” measures.
Like many airlines, flight attendants are mainly paid based on “credited flight time,” also known as block time pay. This usually starts when the aircraft door closes before takeoff and ends when it opens after landing.
Consequently, several critical parts of the workday may not be paid at the full hourly rate, including:
- Preflight safety briefings
- Aircraft equipment checks
- Boarding and passenger assistance
- Ground delays with passengers onboard
- Time spent waiting between flights
- Delayed flights
This setup is often highlighted in labor reports from outlets like Reuters, which have explained how flight attendants can work long duty days, yet their pay is based on a much smaller block-time figure.
The aviation industry didn’t invent block time pay for flight attendants simply to shortchange workers. Originally, the system was built around a metric that was easy to track, predictable for scheduling, and closely tied to airline revenue.
For airlines, this model made labor costs more flexible and easier to predict. For workers, though, it meant the toughest and most visible parts of the job weren’t always directly rewarded.
Over time, this gap between “time worked” and “time paid” has become one of the most contentious issues in flight attendant labor relations.
To offset the limitations of block time, pay for flight attendants, airline contracts have evolved layers of protections. These mechanisms are often misunderstood by those outside the industry.
Common contract protections in the pay structure include:
- Minimum Day Guarantees: These ensure a baseline amount of pay credit regardless of how short the flight schedule is.
- Duty Rigs: These add pay credit if the total time on duty becomes excessive relative to flight time.
- Trip Rigs: This tie pay to the total time away from base.
- Per Diem: An hourly allowance meant to cover meals and expenses while on duty.
The pay model isn’t set in stone. In recent years, there’s been growing pressure across North America to move toward paid boarding and ground time, shaking up the traditional flight attendant pay system.
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