American Pilots Say United Pilots Got A Better Deal. American Says It Will ‘Take Care’ Of Its Pilots

United Airlines pilot leaders announced Saturday that after four years of contract talks, they reached an agreement in principle. Now American pilot leaders, who were preparing to send their tentative deal out for ratification, say the United deal is better than the one they have.

The sequence is not unusual for pattern bargaining, where a union makes gains in talks with one employer, and a second union uses those gains to seek improvements from its employer. But it is unusual to have all three global U.S. airline contracts being completed at roughly the same time. Additionally, Southwest pilots are currently negotiating. The four carriers have 80% of U.S. air traffic.

In the case of the American and United contract talks, two factors add intrigue. One is that United pilots are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, while American pilots are represented by Allied Pilots Association. Some American pilots want to join ALPA.

Also, United CEO Scott Kirby was formerly president of American. He left when it became clear that Robert Isom, not Kirby, would follow Doug Parker as CEO. Parker stepped down in 2022 “Isom and Kirby are always battling each other,” said APA spokesman Dennis Tajer.

After the United deal was announced, the APA board of directors met in emergency session on Sunday. The adjourned and are scheduled to resume at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

An American Airlines spokesman said Monday, “Congratulations to United Airlines and their pilots on their new agreement in principle. We wish them well as they work to get a ratified agreement. As always, we’ll work with the APA to make sure our pilots are taken care of.”

Delta pilots approved a three-year contract deal on May 1. It included a 34% pay increase as well as quality of life improvements. APA and American reached an agreement in principle on May 19. Union leaders tentatively approved it on July 11. A ratification vote had been scheduled to begin next Monday July 24. Now the scheduling of the vote is an open question.

After American’s agreement in principle was announced, ALPA President Jason Ambrosi said it should have been better. “Unfortunately, the American Airlines agreement negotiated by the Allied Pilots Association failed to raise the bar for our industry,” Ambrosi wrote in a memo to the ALPA executive board.

Tajer said Monday that the United contract has some improvements over the American deal and some over the Delta deal. “They collected shells from the Delta deal, they collected shells from our deal, and now they have a basket full of beach shells this summer,” he said.

The improvements, Tajer said, include some higher pay rates, a slightly better back pay provision, annual raises in January rather than May, more sick time, and maximum daily hourly limit of 13 hours with extra compensation over ten hours.

On pay, United widebody pilots get 1% more than Delta. But that will trigger the Delta deal to increase, due to a “snap up” in the Delta contract. Tajer said the American tentative agreement doesn’t have a snap up, but “ Mr. Isom said he will not pay his pilots less than competitors.”

For a 12-year Boeing 787 captain, the Delta contract pay rate is $417.54 hourly. The American tentative agreement shows the same pay rate. The United agreement in principle has a $421.72 hourly rate.

A feature in the American tentative agreement was a 3% increase at the amendable date in August 2027. United pilots negotiated a similar increase. Delta pilots so far have not negotiated one. As for back pay , the American contract currently has a gap, with no back pay between January and April 2023.