Why do two flight attendants on the same flight earn different amounts?

Pay depends on seniority band, contracted hours, base location, and which premiums apply to each person's specific duties, not just the flight they're both on. Two crew on the same sector can have different duty pay, per diem, and overnight entitlements.

Is flight attendant pay based on block hours or duty hours?

Duty pay is almost always based on duty hours, report time to release time, not block hours (wheels-up to wheels-down). This means ground delays and boarding time are paid.

Flight Attendant Pay Explained: Duty Pay, Per Diem & More

Flight attendant pay is rarely a single number. It's base salary, duty pay, per diem, overnight allowance, and premiums combined differently depending on your airline, base, and roster that month. How each piece works.

1. Monthly base or hourly rate

Most airlines pay a monthly base salary that covers a minimum number of flying hours, with additional hours paid on top once you exceed it. Some operators, particularly low-cost carriers, pay a lower base with higher per-hour duty pay instead.

2. Duty pay: report to release, not wheels-up to wheels-down

Duty pay is calculated on duty hours, from your report time at check-in to your release at the end of the day, not block hours. This means briefing, boarding, ground delays, and post-flight duties are all paid time, even though they're not "flying."

3. Per diem: paid by the hour away from base

Per diem covers meals and incidentals for every hour you're away from your home base, calculated from departure to return. It's usually split into a taxable and non-taxable element depending on your tax authority's approved rate. See our crew per diem guide for the full mechanics.

4. Overnight allowance: paid by the night

Separate from per diem, overnight allowance is a fixed payment for each night spent away from base, regardless of how many hours that covers. Some airlines combine per diem and overnight into a single away-from-base rate; others pay both.

5. Premiums and seniority bands

Late finishes, early starts, public holiday duties, language skills, and seniority all add premiums on top of the base structure. Two crew on an identical roster can take home different totals purely because of seniority band or base allowance differences.

6. How to actually check your own number

Import your roster into a cabin crew pay calculator and let it build the expected breakdown automatically, then compare it against your payslip with the payslip checker before you query payroll.