American Cracks Down On Flight Attendants Profiting Off Trip Trading

American Airlines has issued a new round of warnings to flight attendants, as some employees at the airline have clearly turned trip trading into a side hustle…

Why flight attendant trip trading has become problematic

Let’s start with a little bit of background. Flight attendants at virtually all US airlines are assigned their schedules based on seniority. They can bid on their schedule for each month, and then a computer system will assign them trips based on their preferences (and other metrics), in order of seniority.

As you’d expect, some trips are much more senior than others, as you’ll notice as a passenger when boarding certain flights.