United Airlines flight attendants are set to vote on a new tentative agreement being proposed by the US carrier and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.
On March 26, 2026, United Airlines stated that, if the contract agreement was accepted by its 30,000 flight attendants, they would receive “industry-leading wages, better scheduling and other improvements”.
“The new agreement includes immediate raises upon ratification and top wage rates that reach $100 per hour by the end of the agreement, making United flight attendants the best-paid in the industry,” United Airlines said. “It also includes boarding pay, new pay for long gaps between flights and a signing bonus for every flight attendant worth a total of $740 million.”
In a separate statement, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA told its members that, following a mediated session this week in Washington DC, the union had secured improved base pay rates, restrictions on red-eye flying and ‘sit pay’ for scheduled and rescheduled sits over 2.5 hours.
A spokesperson for the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said: “The Tentative Agreement will be presented to AFA United Master Executive Council (MEC) at a Special Meeting on Wednesday, April 1st. The MEC, which is comprised of the 14 Local Presidents, will review and vote on whether to send the Tentative Agreement for Membership Ratification.”
.@AFAUnitedMEC has reached a Tentative Agreement! pic.twitter.com/BgnZee1JTM
— AFA-CWA (@afa_cwa) March 26, 2026
If approved by the MEC, the union will release full details of the tentative agreement on April 3, 2026, and then a vote will be held from April 23 to May 12, 2026.
If approved by flight attendants, the improved pay scales and boarding pay would go into effect on May 31, 2026.
In 2025, flight attendants voted against a new labor agreement that offered an immediate pay raise of at least 26%, along with other enhancements to their working conditions.
According to the union at the time, the agreement was rejected because it “didn’t go far enough to address the years of sacrifice and hard work to make the airline the success it is today”.