Exclusive: British Airways reveals improved cabin crew pay offer – a win for Mixed Fleet

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

British Airways has unveiled its revised pay proposal today for cabin crew.

This is, it has to be said, an improvement on the original package. The winners are current Mixed Fleet crew who will see a modest increase in their total earnings. This should be enough to finally put to bed any threat of strike action by cabin crew.

It does, of course, still represent a sharp cut in pay for legacy crew members. Legacy crew who accept the new package will also have to commit to mixed long-haul and short-haul flying with poorer working conditions.

British Airways new cabin crew pay package

This is how the proposed new package looks:

Cabin crew:

Total target earnings: £28,000

Comprising:

Base salary – £17,000 (£16,000 for new entrants)
Duty pay based on hours flown – £3,000 to £5,000
Incentive pay – £1,000
Flex allowance – £850
Per diem – £3,500 to £5,500

Remember that the ‘per diem’ includes payment that normal employees would consider expenses such as meal allowances when away. The incentive payment is target based.

’Flex allowance’ is a sum which cannot be taken as cash but can be used towards certain employee benefits or paid into a pension plan.

Realistically …. if you assume that crew spend 75% of their ‘per diem’ money on living expenses whilst away, and that the bonus is not triggered, you are looking at £17,000 + £4,000 average duty pay + £1,100 ‘profit’ on the per diem, which is £22,100, plus the £850 of non-cash benefits or additional pension contribution.

For comparison, based on the latest numbers I could find, Virgin Atlantic crew start on £17,000, rising to £18,500 after four years. They receive additional ‘trip pay’ of £96 per return trip, with five to six trips per months, plus an overnight allowance. This is a different sort of role, of course, as it is exclusively long-haul flying.

British Airways cabin crew new pay deal

Lead cabin crew:

Total target earnings: £31,000

Comprising:

Base salary – £20,000
Duty pay based on hours flown – £3,000 to £5,000
Incentive pay – £1,000
Flex allowance – £1,000
Per diem – £3,500 to £5,500

Manager:

Total target earnings: £39,000

Comprising:

Base salary – £32,000
Incentive pay – £2,000
Flex allowance – £1,600
Per diem – £3,500 to £5,500

On top of this, all crew will receive pension contributions of up to 11% and staff travel concessions.

British Airways says that this is a ‘market leading package’. It will still be a tough pill for existing legacy cabin crew to swallow, however – even £39,000 for a Manager represents a 33% pay cut for most legacy Cabin Service Directors. For standard cabin crew on a legacy contract, the drop would be similar.

In the short term I reckon that British Airways needs at least 50% of legacy crew to remain with the business if it is to run a 60% schedule. Will enough stay?

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Josh says:

19 Jun19 June 15:23

A fair deal I would say, given the circumstances now.
Lumma says:

19 Jun19 June 15:30

A front of house worker in a reasonable London restaurant would earn more than these people who are responsible for safety
- Aston100 says:
  
  19 Jun19 June 15:31
  
  Well, that is always an option for any BA dinosaurs who feels hard done by.
- Paul says:
  
  19 Jun19 June 15:38
  
  Please tell us where!
- james says:
  
  19 Jun19 June 15:38
  
  Yeh but without the 90% discount on flights for family and friends
Aston100 says:

19 Jun19 June 15:31

A very fair deal IMO.
Particularly this: “all crew will receive pension contributions of up to 11%”

There are overpaid union controlled hardcore elements in a number of other workplaces around the country, particularly on TFL. Hopefully they too will be brought in line.
It is long past time that the most militant of unions who would bring the country to it’s knees are disbanded.
- Fred says:
  
  19 Jun19 June 16:00
  
  The flex allowance is part of the pension contribution make up. If taken as cash they will not receive the 6% top up. And no money going into a pension for their retirement. They’re having decide whether to top up a poor wage or save for the future.
- Lady London says:
  
  19 Jun19 June 16:18
  
  ‘up to’ 11%
  Bearing in mind that minimum pension contribution by employers for those auto-enrolled is only recently upgraded to 5%.
  I would be the very great majority will see 5% or just possibly fractionally more.
- BlueThroughCrimp says:
  
  19 Jun19 June 16:22
  
  Yes, it was the unions who brought the world to it’s knees when the bankers trashed the economy. Rollseyes.
  - Paul74 says:
    
    19 Jun19 June 20:27
    
    🙂
Anita says:

19 Jun19 June 15:38

Fantastic news. A much better deal for hardworking cabin crew.
Chabuddy geezy says:

19 Jun19 June 15:41

I guess the unions were right in not negotiating with BA. BA had their hand forced by bad publicity.
- Lady London says:
  
  19 Jun19 June 16:18
  
  No, BA planned it
  - Chabuddy geezy says:
    
    19 Jun19 June 19:10
    
    BA had this up their sleeves for after negotiations had started with the unions. Unilaterally improving the offer without any negotiations makes BA look like they had poor judgement.
Briandt says:

19 Jun19 June 15:41

Wait for the outcry, “It’s nowhere near fair enough “. There’s just no pleasing some people.
Paul says:

19 Jun19 June 15:42

Has duty pay changed from time away from base to flight hours only?
- Geroge says:
  
  19 Jun19 June 15:47
  
  Seems it. But in addition to Duty Pay they are offering tax free per diem’s which are new.
  - BS says:
    
    19 Jun19 June 17:57
    
    If flying hours only then could that literally mean door shut to door open with nothing specific for report or return to base time or any time down route even a turnaround. Depends I guess on the definition of flying hours whether report and turnaround time paid but not downroute night stops. Although if actually only flying hours which understand are 900 max not sure how the 3000-5000 range would be arrived at using the current MF per hour rate unless does include report times.
    
    Including a per diem as potential salary is all very well but per diems are subject to HMRC and I seem to recall somewhere seeing Virgin Atlantic had issues with per diems so cannot be guaranteed
    
    I have no connection to BA so above just speculation based on what have read on this forum among others
johnnt5a says:

19 Jun19 June 15:48

I guess they’re bringing legacy contract salaries in line with other airlines.
- Milly says:
  
  19 Jun19 June 16:17
  
  Do other airline crew have the same profitability per person as BA staff do ? And why have your pay cut to less than when you started all those years ago. The contract that was signed at the time with the terms and conditions set by BA. Is it ok to just rip them up and start again and be told that the years of service you have given isn’t good enough!
  - AJA says:
    
    19 Jun19 June 16:58
    
    Milly, you do not have a right to continual employment for life without contract variation. If that was the case you could also never leave your job. All contracts of employment allow for both employee and employer to re-negotiate or end them.
    
    That is what happens when you have an annual review and get an increase in salary. Your contract has altered by increasing your salary even if no other terms have been amended.
    
    Usually employees can end their contracts by serving notice but you can just leave immediately, withdraw your labour and in exchange forgo any further pay. Even so you would still be entitled to outstanding holiday pay.
    
    The employer on the other hand also has the right to renegotiate the contract by varying the terms of the contract or indeed making you sign a new one. They can only do this if they have given you notice (which BA did) and they have given you the opportunity to discuss the new terms. In the case of BA that negotiation was supposed to be with the unions representing the staff. Since the unions failed to negotiate BA has now, unilaterally it seems, offered the contract as mentioned in the article.
    
    This new contract seems on the surface to be a good move by BA. I am sure there will still be those who grumble, especially those on legacy contracts.
    - Lady London says:
      
      19 Jun19 June 18:48
      
      “eave immediately, withdraw your labour and in exchange forgo any further pay. Even so you would still be entitled to outstanding holiday pay.”
      …I think if you left without notice, I think most employers would take your accrued holiday pay as part of the notice you didn’t give them, so you would n o t get your accrued holiday pay from them?
      
      IIRC everywhere I’ve seen redundancy programs the terms have stipulated any notice that doesn;t have to be worked, any unused accrued holiday days will be used towards and they will not be paid out.
      
      Tell me I’m wrong. for I would love this to have changed.
      - AJA says:
        
        20 Jun20 June 16:23
        
        @LL Almost all workers in the UK are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday a year (known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave). Employers must pay for untaken statutory leave,
        
        Holiday pay, like your wages, is accrued and usually taken/paid in arrears i.e. you have to have worked several months in order to be entitled to take the holiday. In practice most companies, though admittedly not all, allow you to carry over unused entitlement from one year to the next.
        
        If you have any outstanding holiday balance accrued when you leave employment you are legally entitled to have it paid to you in addition to any pay due for serving notice, The employer must pay even if a worker is dismissed for gross misconduct. .You can also choose to take holiday during your notice period. But a company cannot withhold e.g 5 days holiday pay due simply because you withdraw your labour and leave without serving your notice.
        
        https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/taking-holiday-before-leaving-a-job