MSPeconomist

Is FA and pilot pay calculated down to the minute? If so, I wonder how much variation there typically is, for instance they lose money if their flight has a strong tailwind and arrives early. This would seem to give pilots a perverse incentive to slow down.

Bear96

Yes it is calculated to the minute but is usually paid the greater of the actual or scheduled block time, to avoid just this potential issue.

jamesteroh

I flew LIM/ATL a couple years ago and there was some kind of of light burned out and and it took them a while to get it fixed since DL only does that one flight out of LIM. By the time they got it fixed they missed the curfew time to fly out of LIM and we couldn't leave until about four hours later and the plane was already boarded and they found the issue just before getting ready to leave.

The pilot said if anyone want to deplane they were welcome to and reboard later but he was moving the plane to the next gate and was going to have the FA's do the meal service immediately after we were at the next gate.

I found out in order for the FA's to get paid and for them to be able to do the meal service the door had to be closed and the plane had to show as departing the gate. It was absurd they wasted the jet fuel and pilots time to move over one gate so the FA's could get paid. Delta should have just been able to start paying the FA's at the time instead of moving the plane.

I hope Delta never starts charging for a carry on. Spirit has been doing that for a long time. I wouldn't mind them allowing elites to have a carry on and charging the kettles but letting them check a bag for free instead I think that would save a lot of time over fighting for bin space and also save time with the once a year travellers who try to bring on everything but the kitchen sing to avoid paying a fee.

The Situation

While this is not doubt part of it, but probably 50% the reason. Its no secret that it has been difficult to hire and retain employees at airlines or any industry for that matter. The direct and indirect costs for other airlines not having enough employees to run their full schedule is pretty significant. DL calculated that the "investment" in employees will be a lower cost option to ensure that they don't face the same disasters AS and others have experienced and the good PR doesn't hurt them either - I think I have seen a story on every single news source I view.

Bear96

I think you are saying they did this to attract new employees. If so, maybe that is a tiny part but in large part I disagree. DL would get more bang for it's buck for recruiting purposes by simply further raising the hourly flight pay rate, which is the bottom line number applicants who are most likely not that familiar with the industry will be looking at and comparing to other airlines. (Because of the seniority system, airline employees very rarely voluntarily switch carriers, which DL knows, so they are not doing this to poach other airlines' F/As.)

Instead, DL chose to change a relatively arcane practice that has long been a hot-button issue inside the industry but is little known outside (except by aviation and FT geeks of course!). I would bet a good deal of money that if there were not (yet another) AFA organizing drive hanging over DL's heads, they would not have done this, even with the current tight labor market.

FTR I am not criticizing DL and I have no opinion one way or the other on DL F/As joining AFA (or any other union). It's a smart move on DL's part in light of the organizing effort. I am just saying don't kid yourself that that isn't what is ultimately behind the decision.

jamesteroh

I have a good friend that is an international ATL based flight attendant and he said it was the PMNW ones that were pushing for a union right after the merger. He said the Delta FA's didn't want to unionize. Their pay was better than what NW was paying and they didn't want to pay union dues. Not sure if this is still the case.

Some of the things he told me that the NW FA's complained about were down right petty. Like the red dresses they only had up to a size 18. The NW FA's compalined that their unoin contract called for dresses to be up to a size 28 and the designer refused to go past a size 18.

VFR

Limiting a desirable uniform option based on an employee's weight does not send a good message. I do not think the FAs were being petty.

Lomapaseo

simply move the zipper to the front, problem solved

Lux Flyer

I wouldn't say it was 100% the only reason. Either way DL was very likely to give their FAs a pay raise in the face of a unionization push, difficulty staffing/retaining EEs, and recent inflation pressures. DL would probably have been in a spot to need to give a pay raise even without the current unionization push. Doing this pay raise by paying boarding time (effectively at least a 10% increase) serves multiple purposes though as on top of improving compensation for the FAs. It gives good PR both externally and internally to other EE groups that DL is working to move away from some of the more "archaic" pay practices prominent in the airline industry, differentiates them from other airlines to prospective employees, and still leaves them the flexibility to raise the actual per hour pay rate in the future*, if this change alone is not sufficient to improve compensation.

*While there was nothing preventing them from increasing the hourly pay rate, I think having to make multiple hourly pay changes in a short period of time, if the first change wasn't sufficient, is generally frowned upon for a company to do as opposed to finding other more creative ways to address compensation

MSPeconomist

There's also the distributional impact that if patterns of bidding routes don't change, the newer FAs benefit somewhat more, at least relatively. It also makes the shorter routes more attractive and might help to incentivize FAs to be willing to sign on for a couple extra short flights, for example during IROPs or when DL is facing crew shortages due to illness or other reasons.

An across the board pay raise would probably cause more senior FAs to be somewhat less inclined to retire voluntarily and thus raise costs somewhat more.

Orange County Commuter

yes after all It’s been 20 minutes since you left the skyclub

😂

DCAproducer

Bring back the boarding zone pillars!! The gate lice have returned in droves.

ClipperDelta

FYI, Delta had already announced back in March a 4% pay raise for most employees starting May 1:

https://www.reuters.com/business/aer...-4-2022-03-17/

This boarding pay for FAs is on top of the 4%.

To address some other posts on here, this boarding pay is a flat rate to be paid no matter how long boarding actually takes. On a domestic narrowbody, they will be paid for 40 mins boarding time even if it ends up taking only 25 mins, for example…

fliesdelta

Heh... PDB... remember? Good times.

rylan

Well my and others concerns are validated with the early boarding leading to early door closing - on a bos-jfk flight. A220 and boarding started at T-40. Completed 15 min before departure. GA came on to check seats since I heard them say they’re missing 5 pax, with 2 of them in F. Door closed 9 min before departure without anyone else boarding, and backed off gate 5 min early . Looks like employee got pulled up to one of the F seats and the other remained empty despite a long upgrade list.