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American Airlines Flight Attendants’ 2024 Deal: 18%–20.5% Immediate Raises, Retro Pay and Boarding Premium

The ratified 2024 American Airlines flight-attendant contract set immediate wage-scale increases of 18%–20.5% by service step, retroactive compensation subject to eligibility rules, and boarding pay at half the hourly rate for scheduled boarding minutes.
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American Airlines flight attendants’ 2024 contract deal was ratified in September 2024. Its immediate wage-scale increases were 18% to 20.5%, depending on service step—not a uniform 18% raise for every attendant. The agreement also provided retroactive compensation under eligibility and calculation rules, plus boarding pay equal to half the hourly rate for each scheduled boarding minute.

What happened to the tentative deal?

APFA, the union representing American Airlines flight attendants, and the airline announced a tentative agreement on July 19, 2024. At that point, members still had to vote on it. The agreement was ratified in September 2024, so it is now a ratified contract rather than a pending proposal. APFA’s July 19 announcement described the deal as addressing compensation, work rules and retroactive pay. American Airlines likewise called ratification a milestone and thanked the negotiating teams in its September 2024 announcement.

How the wage increases were structured

The APFA tentative-agreement booklet listed immediate wage-scale increases of 18% to 20.5% effective at signing, varying by service step. The 18% figure in the original headline is the bottom of that range, not a flat increase applying identically to every flight attendant.

The booklet also set out additional wage-scale increases in later years. These are separate from the immediate increase:

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Timing in APFA’s 2024 proposal Listed wage-scale increase
At signing 18%–20.5%, varying by service step
First out-year increase 2.75%
Second out-year increase 3.0%
Third out-year increase 3.0%
Fourth out-year increase 3.5%

These figures describe the proposed wage-scale schedule in APFA’s 2024 tentative-agreement booklet; the immediate percentage depends on the employee’s service step.

How retroactive compensation worked

APFA described retroactive compensation as a percentage of 401(k)-eligible earnings over specified periods. Its FAQ identifies the full covered period as January 1, 2020, through August 31, 2024, and sets out eligibility conditions. That means the retro-pay component was not an identical flat payment automatically owed to every current or former flight attendant.

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APFA valued the retroactive-pay component at $514 million. That is the union’s valuation of the component, not a per-person payment amount. The calculation and eligibility terms are in the union’s tentative-agreement booklet.

What the boarding premium paid—and what it did not

The agreement defined boarding pay as 50% of the hourly rate for every minute of scheduled boarding, using published boarding times. It is a premium for scheduled boarding time, not full-rate pay for every boarding minute and not a payment based on actual boarding duration. APFA repeated this formula in its retrospective. The booklet and APFA’s September 2025 retrospective provide the union’s descriptions.

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APFA’s member materials framed the distinction with the question, “Why can’t we just take the boarding pay as regular wages?” The answer in the agreement is that boarding compensation was set as a separate, half-rate premium tied to scheduled minutes, rather than incorporated as full-rate hourly wages.

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What the headline contract value means

APFA’s 2024 booklet characterized the agreement as a five-year contract worth $4.2 billion and estimated an average $160,000 increase in value per active flight attendant over five years. Those are union valuation figures, not independently verified realized payments to each attendant. The estimated average contract-value increase should not be read as a guaranteed cash raise or a uniform payout.

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How APFA reported the ratification vote

APFA’s September 2025 retrospective reported 94.43% participation and 88.64% voting yes. Separately, APFA’s TA2024 page reported that 95% of eligible flight attendants voted and 87% voted yes in its September 2024 report. The figures use different reporting contexts and should not be blended into one statistic.

Sources: APFA’s September 2025 retrospective and APFA’s TA2024 page.

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What APFA said about the agreement

When the tentative agreement was announced on July 19, 2024, APFA National President Julie Hedrick said the negotiations had resulted in “significant benefits” and described the deal as addressing concerns about compensation, work rules and retroactive pay. That is the union’s characterization of the agreement. APFA’s announcement includes Hedrick’s statement.

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