If you have been researching a career as a flight attendant at a US airline and come across the term “boarding pay,” you are not alone in wondering what it means. It is one of the most significant developments in US airline compensation over the past few years, and it’s been adopted by a growing number of carriers.
This guide explains what boarding pay is, where it came from, which airlines offer it, and what impact it might have on your take-home pay.
The Problem Boarding Pay Was Designed to Solve
To understand boarding pay, you first need to understand the way that US airlines have traditionally paid their flight attendants.
For decades, flight attendants have been paid on what is called block hours, which is the period from when the aircraft door closes and the plane pushes back from the gate to the moment it arrives at its destination. Every minute before the door closes and after it opens at the other end is, technically, unpaid.
That unpaid period includes boarding: The busiest and most demanding part of many flight attendants’ working day, where they welcome between 150 and 200 passengers, stow luggage, manage medical needs, deal with anxious travellers, and carry out safety demonstrations. All done for free.
For a flight attendant working a long-haul international route, this gap between arriving at work and starting to earn is relatively small. One boarding period per day. A couple of hours of unpaid time relative to a very long block of paid flight time.
For a flight attendant working domestic turns, it is a completely different picture. Four, five, or six sectors in a day means four, five, or six boardings. Each one without pay. A junior flight attendant working a full day of short domestic flights could easily spend two or three hours boarding passengers without earning a cent.
This structure has long been criticised as systematically disadvantaging newer, lower-paid crew who are least able to afford it, while benefiting the most senior crew who already have their pick of the most lucrative schedules.
Worth knowing: The inequity in airlines only paying flight attendants for the block hours they have worked is not accidental. The traditional US airline pay model was built in an era when seniority and earnings were expected to correlate closely: senior crew earn more per hour and work fewer, longer flights, junior crew earn less and work more. Boarding pay is designed to slightly fix that imbalance.
Where Boarding Pay Came From
The concept of paying flight attendants during boarding is not new. The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) says it negotiated the concept with United Airlines just before 9/11, but in the wake of that horrific tragedy, the union was forced to make concessions and abandon the idea.
The modern era of boarding pay began in June 2022, when Delta Air Lines made history. Yes, it was a non-unionised airline that became the first major US carrier to start paying its crew members for boarding. The surprise decision came, perhaps coincidentally, just as the AFA was making a renewed drive to unionise the Atlanta-based airline’s flight attendant workforce.
Delta’s boarding pay is set at 50% of a flight attendant’s regular hourly flying rate, with the airline saying it could add an additional $4,000 in the pockets of crew members each year. In reality, some flight attendants report earning close to $450 extra per month, depending on their schedule.
Regional carrier, SkyWest, followed not long after, becoming the second airline to offer boarding pay, at a lower rate of 25% of normal hourly pay. Just like at Delta, flight attendants at SkyWest are non-unionised.
American Airlines flight attendants approved a new contract that includes boarding pay from April 2025, making them the first unionised workforce at a major US carrier to secure the benefit. American Airlines paid out $32 million in boarding pay to flight attendants in just five months between April and August 2025.
Alaska Airlines has also introduced boarding pay as part of its most recent contract.
By mid-2026, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue are the two most significant US carriers still without boarding pay, along with Frontier, Breeze, and most regional operators.
The Southwest Situation
Southwest flight attendants only recently ratified a new contract that maintains the status quo, in which crew members only start getting paid from the time the plane pushes back from the gate.
This was a deliberate choice, and one that some crew members strongly supported. Southwest flight attendants do not earn a traditional hourly rate but operate on a Trips for Pay system, where one TFP is equivalent to flying approximately 243 miles or 55 minutes of flight time. Some veteran crew members argued that overall pay increases should be concentrated in the flying rate itself rather than spread across a boarding pay component.
The Southwest picture became more complicated when a Southwest flight attendant filed a lawsuit against the airline, arguing that Colorado’s Wage and Hour Law should guarantee him the right to be paid for all the time he spends at work, including up to 75 minutes of pre-flight work before the plane leaves the gate. The case remains contentious, and Southwest is expected to argue that the collective bargaining agreement supersedes state law.
Who Currently Offers Boarding Pay
As of mid-2026, five US airlines offer boarding pay:
- Delta Air Lines: 50% of the hourly flying rate, paid per sector. The first major US carrier to introduce it in June 2022.
- American Airlines: 50% of the hourly flying rate, introduced in April 2025. The first unionised major carrier workforce to win the benefit.
- Alaska Airlines: Boarding pay included in most recent contract.
- United Airlines: Introduced boarding pay in its 2026 contract. United pays boarding pay as a fixed percentage of your hourly flight rate, set by aircraft type.
- SkyWest: 25% of the hourly flying rate. SkyWest is non-unionised, like Delta, and is currently resisting an active unionisation attempt by the AFA.
American Airlines ratified its contract before Alaska, but both introduced boarding pay in quick succession. United’s contract came after both but was almost immediately implemented.
Airlines without boarding pay:
- Southwest Airlines: A deliberate contract choice.
- JetBlue: No boarding pay under the current contract, but bargaining on an updated contract continues.
- Frontier, Breeze, and most regional carriers: Block-hours-only pay remains standard
The Redistribution Point: Why Boarding Pay Does Not Always Mean More Money
Boarding pay does not automatically increase a flight attendant’s overall compensation. In many cases, it redistributes it.
Although boarding pay does clearly increase labour costs for airlines, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all flight attendants are earning lots more money. When an airline introduces boarding pay, the overall compensation package is recalibrated. The hourly flying rate may be lower than it would otherwise have been, with the boarding component making up the difference for crew who work the right type of flying to benefit from it.
Some veteran flight attendants at American Airlines argued that all pay increases should have been included in the normal hourly flying rate, effectively sticking with the system they had worked with for years. Their reasoning: senior crew working long-haul international routes with one or two boardings per day earn more from a higher hourly flying rate than from a boarding pay supplement that rewards frequent short-haul sectors.
On the flip side, some flight attendants who have the seniority to pick premium international destinations have started choosing domestic trips to take full advantage of the money-earning potential of boarding pay.
If you expect to work primarily domestic short-haul flying: Boarding pay is likely to make a real difference to your monthly take-home, particularly in your early years when you have less seniority to bid long-haul routes.
If you expect to work primarily international long-haul flying: Boarding pay will have a more modest impact on your total earnings. The additional income from one or two boardings per day is unlikely to transform your compensation picture.
If you are comparing two airlines: One with boarding pay and one without, do not assume the one with boarding pay necessarily pays more overall. Look at the total compensation package, including hourly rate, per diem, profit sharing, and guaranteed hours, rather than treating boarding pay as a straightforward addition.
How This Compares Internationally
Boarding pay is a specifically American phenomenon, and understanding why requires understanding how non-US airlines structure pay differently.
At European airlines, flight attendants are typically paid from the moment they check in.
Gulf carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad structure pay around a basic monthly salary, plus flying pay allowances and layover allowances. A few years ago, however, Etihad Airways, which traditionally paid flight attendants for boarding, decided to adopt the U.S. system and paid for block hours, increasing the hourly flying rate, while removing boarding pay.
The Bigger Picture: What Comes After Boarding Pay
Despite the fact that boarding pay still hasn’t been adopted by the majority of US airlines, there are already calls to extend the concept to Ground Duty Pay, which would ensure that flight attendants are compensated for all the time that they are at work but not flying.
The challenge with Ground Duty Pay is exactly the redistribution problem outlined above: airlines would inevitably negotiate adjustments to the hourly flying rate to offset the additional cost, which would disadvantage senior crew working long-haul schedules. That tension between the interests of junior and senior crew within the same union is one of the defining dynamics of US airline labour relations right now, and boarding pay sits right at the centre of it.
For the full breakdown of how boarding pay works at specific airlines, including confirmed rates and real-world earnings examples:
