# United Fires Senior Flight Attendants for Selling Trip Trades

_Jul 22 09:41_

Tags: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, AFA-CWA, airline, loyalty program, devaluation

United Airlines is terminating senior flight attendants who are selling their lucrative trips to junior colleagues for cash, a practice known as trip trading. The union AFA-CWA reports a significant increase in these terminations and is pushing back on the cases

## Summary

United Airlines is increasingly firing senior flight attendants for profiting off trip trading, where senior crew members bid on desirable trips they don't intend to fly and sell them to junior colleagues for cash. Flight attendants are assigned schedules based on seniority. While trip trading is common, United (along with American and Delta) has rules against trading for cash, unlike Alaska, Frontier, JetBlue, and Southwest. The union AFA-CWA reports a significant increase in terminations for this violation and is demanding proper investigation and progressive discipline for the fired employees. This shift impacts the seniority system and operational costs, as staffing flights with junior attendants is less expensive for the airline

## Why it matters

Affects 7 airline programs (Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines...).

## Sources cited

- [One Mile at a Time](https://onemileatatime.com/news/united-fires-senior-flight-attendants-profiting-trip-trading) — United Fires Senior Flight Attendants For Profiting Off Of Trip Trading

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