United Airlines Can’t Find Hotels Willing To Take Its Flight Attendants – Here’s Why

The hotels that flight attendants stay in has become a hot topic in ongoing contract negotiations between United and the union, with crew members fighting to get to stay in better quality accommodation close to the main sights.

While the AFA has won significant concessions from United in these negotiations, the union has just warned flight attendants that finding a good quality hotel in the right location and at the right price is becoming increasingly difficult.

Flight attendants may well bemoan constant accommodation changes, especially when they’ve become accustomed to a certain hotel in a given city, but the truth is, AFA says “many hotels simply don’t want crew business anymore.”

Signing up to an airline contract can be a double-edged sword for hotels – on the one hand, they get guaranteed occupancy, and these ‘guests’ are generally quiet and not around for very long.

But there are plenty of drawbacks as well. Unpredictable arrival and departure times, 24-hour stays that completely rip up the standard check-in and check-out times, and minimum room requirements that prevent flight attendants from being situated near elevators, ice machines, and make airline contracts a challenge.

As the AFA notes, the long list of contractual hotel requirements makes flight attendants “more complicated guests than the average tourist.”

And despite worries about the economy, as it stands, hotels are finding they can sell fewer rooms at higher prices to regular guests.

At present, United has been getting around some of these issues by using a clause in the flight attendant contract that allows it to find hotels for layovers in downtown locations or downtown-like locations.

In London, that’s resulted in flight attendants being sent to a sleepy little town 24 miles southwest of Central London. Flight attendants have also been moved out of downtown hotels in Amsterdam, Rome, and New York City, to name but a few destinations.

In times gone by, full-service airlines took pride in making sure their crew stayed in Four or Five Star hotels in desirable locations. This was part of the appeal of wanting to do the job in the first place, but in recent years, there has been a major shift.

Nowadays, the AFA says price has become an increasingly important factor in hotel selection, and as long as the hotel that United finds hits the minimum contractual obligations, it has little scope to reject the hotel choice.

There is, though, a sign that things could improve, at least slightly, if agreement on a new flight attendant contract can be reached.

The tentative agreement that was reached in the summer will remove the clause for longer layovers, allowing United to pick downtown-like locations, while wording about ‘business class’ hotels has also been removed, as this could actually see an improvement in hotel choices.

The problem, however, is that there’s no indication of when an agreement will be reached. The airline and union are expected to resume bargaining sessions later this month, although this will be without the help of a federal mediator if the government shutdown is still in effect.

Bargaining sessions have already been scheduled through to Spring 2026, so there’s every chance that talks could drag on for some time to come.

by Mateusz Maszczynski