United Airlines Flight Attendant Salary and Benefits 2026

United flight attendants are now working under a fundamentally different contract than before. The new agreement, ratified in May 2026 and known as TA2, was only agreed after tens of thousands of flight attendants spent nearly six years on an expired, amendable contract with no negotiated raises during that lengthy stretch.

When TA2 finally landed, it delivered one of the largest single corrections in recent US airline labor history, and it rebuilt the pay and benefits structure from the ground up.

This guide covers what United actually pays now, under the current TA2 agreement, not the older figures still circulating in plenty of other places online.

United Pay, In Plain English

Before the details, here is the vocabulary you need. United’s pay structure has more moving parts than most airlines, and the rest of this guide will make a lot more sense with these explained upfront.

• Reserve means you are on call rather than working a fixed schedule. You are available to be assigned a trip with relatively short notice, rather than knowing your flights weeks in advance.
• Line holder is the opposite of Reserve. A “line” is simply your fixed monthly schedule of trips, awarded to you roughly a month in advance. Once you hold a line, you know what you are flying.
• Bidding is how you request the schedule you want. Each month, flight attendants submit their preferences (“bids”) for trips, and lines are awarded based largely on seniority. A “bid month” is just the airline’s name for that monthly scheduling cycle.
• Deadhead means travelling as a passenger, in uniform, to get into position for a working flight, rather than actually working the cabin. You are still being paid; you are just not on duty.
• Narrowbody aircraft have a single aisle (the A320 or 737 family, for example) and typically fly shorter domestic or regional routes. 
• Widebody aircraft have two aisles (the 777 or 787, for example) and fly the longer international routes. United pays differently depending on which type you are working, since a widebody has more passengers, more service, and more complex boarding.
• Block hours are simply the industry’s term for flight hours, measured from the moment the aircraft pushes back from the gate to the moment it parks at the destination.
• Open time refers to trips that need a flight attendant but have not been assigned to anyone yet, available for any eligible crew member to pick up.

With that vocabulary in place, here is what actually determines your paycheck.

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The TA2 Pay Scale

United’s hourly pay moves on two separate triggers, and understanding both is genuinely important if you want to know what you will actually earn at any given point in your career.

The first trigger is your own seniority. Every flight attendant advances one Step on their personal hire-date anniversary, the same basic logic as most airline pay scales.

The second trigger is the contract itself. United’s pay scale rises across the board on 30 July each year for the life of the agreement, regardless of where any individual flight attendant sits on the seniority ladder. So your actual pay at any moment depends on the combination of which Step you have reached through seniority, and which year’s contractual rate currently applies to that Step.

Here is the confirmed scale from Step 1 through Step 13, the year the new contract took effect through to the final scheduled increase in 2030:

Step	Pre-TA2	Jun 2026	Aug 2026	Aug 2027	Aug 2028	Aug 2029	Aug 2030
1	$28.88	$37.10	$38.21	$39.36	$40.64	$42.06	$43.74
2	$30.64	$39.35	$40.53	$41.75	$43.11	$44.62	$46.40
3	$32.59	$41.86	$43.12	$44.41	$45.85	$47.45	$49.35
4	$34.71	$44.58	$45.92	$47.30	$48.84	$50.55	$52.57
5	$38.25	$49.09	$50.56	$52.08	$53.77	$55.65	$57.88
6	$43.30	$55.59	$57.26	$58.98	$60.90	$63.03	$65.55
7	$48.41	$61.14	$62.97	$64.86	$66.97	$69.31	$72.08
8	$49.96	$63.10	$64.99	$66.94	$69.12	$71.54	$74.40
9	$51.34	$64.85	$66.80	$68.80	$71.04	$73.53	$76.47
10	$53.26	$67.27	$69.29	$71.37	$73.69	$76.27	$79.32
11	$54.73	$69.12	$71.19	$73.33	$75.71	$78.36	$81.49
12	$57.33	$72.41	$74.58	$76.82	$79.32	$82.10	$85.38
13	$67.11	$84.92	$87.47	$90.09	$93.02	$96.28	$100.13

The jump from the pre-TA2 rate to the new contract is the headline number here. Starting pay rose from $28.88 to $37.10, an increase of close to 29%, applied retroactively when the contract took effect. By the end of the agreement in 2030, United’s top rate reaches $100.13 per hour, comfortably overtaking Delta’s current top rate of $86.32.

What You Actually Earn: The Honest Trajectory

Year one

New hires typically spend time as Ready Reserves before holding a guaranteed line, covered in more detail below. At the Step 1 TA2 rate, a new hire flying a typical 75 to 80 hour month grosses approximately $2,780 to $2,970 from hourly pay alone. Add boarding pay, per diem, and the night and incentive premiums covered below, and a realistic first-year total comes to approximately $3,700 to $4,800 gross per month, or roughly $44,000 to $58,000 annually.

Mid-career

By Step 5, the hourly rate under the 2026 scale is $49.09, rising to $57.88 by 2030. By Step 9 it is $64.85, rising to $76.47. A mid-career United flight attendant flying a consistent international schedule, picking up boarding pay, per diem, and incentive pay for high-hour quarters, can realistically expect $75,000 to $95,000 annually.

Senior crew

At Step 13, the top of the scale, the 2026 rate is $84.92, rising to $100.13 by 2030. Senior crew working international widebody routes, earning the higher widebody boarding pay tier, international per diem, and qualifying regularly for incentive pay, can comfortably exceed $110,000 to $130,000 annually by the end of the contract.

Boarding Pay

United pays boarding pay as a fixed percentage of your hourly flight rate, set by aircraft type, holding steady for the life of the contract:

• A319 / A320 / 737-700: 29.2% of hourly rate
• 737-800 / MAX 8 / MAX 9 / 900: 33.3% of hourly rate
• Widebody / 757 / A321XLR: 41.7% of hourly rate

Boarding pay is paid per flight sector. If boarding runs long due to a delay, you are not paid extra. The payment is based on scheduled boarding, not actual.

At Step 1 in 2026, that works out to roughly $10.82 on a narrowbody A319/A320 boarding, rising to roughly $15.45 on a widebody boarding. By Step 13, those figures rise to $24.76 and $35.38, respectively. Crew working widebody international routes earn meaningfully more in boarding pay alone than crew flying narrowbody domestic turns.

Sit Pay: A Genuine TA2 Innovation

This is new to TA2, and airlines like Delta have no equivalent. Sit Pay compensates flight attendants for long, unproductive ground time between flights on the same duty period.

Whenever a scheduled or rescheduled sit between two segments exceeds 2 hours and 30 minutes, you earn one minute of pay for every two minutes of sit time above that threshold. So a sit scheduled at 2:48 generates Sit Pay on the 18 minutes above the threshold, not the full 2:48.

The RAP Reserve System

United’s reserve system changed substantially under TA2. The old default was a full 24-hour on-call window. Under TA2, Ready Reserves are instead assigned a Reserve Availability Period, or RAP, of just 14 hours by default. The full 24-hour option still exists, but now has to be actively requested rather than being the automatic assignment.

A RAP is not classified as a duty period, so it does not trigger a rest requirement on its own. RAPs run in defined blocks: Early (0000-0559), Mid (0600-1159), Afternoon (1200-1759), Late (1800-2359), or Full 24-hour availability.

If you are contacted during your RAP, a three-hour call-out period applies even at the very start of your window. A RAP that begins at noon means your earliest possible check-in is 3pm. If you are not assigned anything by the end of your RAP, you are automatically released from contact until your next availability period.

RAPs can be extended by up to five hours, capped at three involuntary extensions per bid month (United’s term for the monthly scheduling cycle), with at least two hours’ notice required and a guaranteed three hours of add pay on top of your reserve guarantee whenever an extension happens. Extensions you have voluntarily preferenced in advance do not count toward that monthly cap.

Red-Eye Duty Limitations

A flight with any portion operating between 0200 and 0400 counts as a red-eye. If your duty period contains one, it is capped at no more than two working segments total, with only one segment permitted before the red-eye and none permitted after it. You can be scheduled to deadhead following a red-eye, but you cannot then be converted to work a further segment; you must be released to rest after that deadhead.

A narrow exception exists for certain high-time, weather-affected routes (United’s own example is Orlando to Los Angeles): a single duty period containing a red-eye can be scheduled up to 14 hours and operated up to 16 hours, provided it still has no more than two segments and ground time under 2 hours 30 minutes.

Separately, flying between 2200 and 0600 earns a flat night pay premium of $0.50 per hour, prorated, based on the segment’s departure time. This is a straightforward pay bonus, distinct from the red-eye duty limitations above.

Incentive Pay, White Flag, and Purple Flag

United has three distinct ways to earn premium pay beyond your standard hourly rate and boarding pay.

Incentive pay rewards high-hour flying. Once you exceed 200 block hours (industry shorthand for flight hours) in a calendar quarter (including vacation and deadhead), you earn a premium rate on every hour above 200, up to a 330-hour ceiling. The catch: no individual month within that quarter can count more than 110 hours toward the incentive calculation, which stops anyone from front-loading a single extreme month to chase the bonus. The incentive premium itself runs at a declining percentage as seniority increases, roughly 113% of base pay at Step 1, down to roughly 106% of base pay at Step 13, making it proportionally more valuable for newer crew.

White flag pay is a staffing tool the company can use, but is not obligated to use, on specific days when it needs crew to pick up open trips, particularly on days off. Any flight attendant who picks up a white flag trip earns a flat 150% of their standard hourly rate for all credited time on that trip, including holding time. If the trip is later traded to someone else, the 150% premium follows whoever actually flies it.

Purple flag pay works identically to white flag, at the same 150% rate, but is designated against a specific hard-to-staff trip rather than a specific day.

Per Diem

Domestic per diem is $2.97 per hour. International per diem is $3.54 per hour. Both are scheduled to rise by ten cents in August 2027, and every twenty-four months after that, a meaningfully faster escalator than the prior contract’s five cents every two years.

Per diem is paid per hour, prorated from whichever is later of your scheduled or actual report time, continuing until you return to your home base. Separately, the company is required to board meals at its own expense whenever you are scheduled for eight or more hours of duty without a stop of at least two hours.

Reserve Guarantee and Line Minimum

These are two different numbers, depending on whether you hold reserve or line holder status:

• Reserves are guaranteed 78 hours of pay and credit per month, reduced proportionally for any day spent unavailable without pay.
• Line holders are protected differently: if you are awarded a line originally projected at under 71 hours, you are still paid as though it carried the full 71 hours, regardless of the lower original projection.

Purser Pay

United restructured Purser pay significantly under TA2. Standard Purser pay is now tiered by both route geography and whether you are trained or untrained for the role:

Route	Trained	Untrained
48 contiguous states and Canada	$3.00/hr	$2.00/hr
Mexico, Caribbean, Central America, Alaska, Hawaii	$4.00/hr	$3.00/hr
Widebody	$5.00/hr	$4.00/hr

Separately, a qualified International Purser, a more senior position, earns a flat $10.00 per hour for all credited flight time and ground holding time, regardless of route, up significantly from the prior contract’s $7.50 rate. For comparison, Delta’s equivalent international purser premium is $6.65 per hour, meaning United’s rate now sits well above Delta’s for the same role.

Profit Sharing and 401(k)

United’s profit sharing is more sophisticated than a flat percentage. It only activates once the company posts more than $10 million in pre-tax earnings for the year, and the pool itself is then built from two tiers:

1. 10% of pre-tax earnings up to the prior year’s level,
2. Plus a higher 20% on any earnings that exceed the prior year.

Each flight attendant’s share is allocated in proportion to their own earnings relative to everyone else’s combined earnings that year. The more you earn, the bigger your slice of the pool, with payment made no later than 30 April each year. You can take your share as cash or direct some or all of it into your 401(k).

The 401(k) itself, confirmed as standard for all flight attendants, including new hires, combines a direct employer contribution of 5% of eligible earnings, paid automatically regardless of whether you personally contribute, plus a 100% match on your own contributions up to 4% of eligible earnings. Combined, that is a maximum employer contribution of 9% for anyone contributing at least 4% themselves.

The 480-Hour Health Care Minimum

United flight attendants need 480 hours of paid activity each year, measured from October to September, to receive the company’s contribution toward health insurance. This applies to everyone, though the vast majority of crew clear it easily through ordinary flying and paid leave.

What counts is broader than just flight hours: flight time credit, reserve guarantee, vacation, paid sick leave, training, deadheads, reserve pickups on days off, paid family and maternity leave, and other legally protected paid leave. There are no monthly or quarterly checkpoints, just the single annual total.

If you take unpaid leave, the 480-hour requirement itself is reduced by 40 hours for every month away, not the hours counting toward it. Eight months of unpaid medical leave reduces your requirement to 160 hours for that year. A full year away reduces it to zero. A separate exemption process exists for urgent personal circumstances that limit your ability to fly without requiring a full leave of absence, with an escalation path to expedited arbitration if a dispute cannot be resolved at base level.

Commuting Protection

United’s commuter policy is genuinely detailed and worth understanding if you do not plan to live in your base city. There are three recognised ways to commute: on a United-controlled flight with a reasonable chance of a seat, on another airline’s flight with documented available capacity, or on a confirmed revenue ticket landing at least an hour before your report time.

The part that matters most: if your commute is disrupted by something outside your control, such as weather, mechanical issues, or no available seat, and you follow the required notification process, you are treated as having an authorized absence rather than facing discipline. That protection holds as long as it does not become a repeated pattern.

The Honest Summary

TA2 represents a genuine and substantial improvement to United flight attendant pay and benefits following years of stagnant pay under an expired contract.

But that doesn’t mean the new hires won’t potentially struggle in their first two or three years. Working at a legacy U.S. carrier like United requires patience, as there will be plenty of time on reserve and a long runway to senior pay. That being said, the contract that new hires are joining under today is a lot stronger than the one United crew worked under for the better part of the last five years.

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