American Airlines is reportedly adding a sales-related requirement to a job more commonly defined by safety and service.
According to industry coverage, flight attendants are being told they must complete training on how to sell credit cards onboard.
For passengers, the change could mean more sales pitches during flights, and, for workers, it could mean broader performance expectations.
Here's what to know
What used to be a voluntary way for crew members to earn commission has become required training, according to Paddle Your Own Kanoo.
American's online module apparently teaches flight attendants how to sell the airline's co-branded credit cards to passengers.
Backlash from staff and stakeholders resistant to making the training required centers on the concern that selling has never been part of the usual flight attendant role.
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These staff members have typically been focused on safety procedures, emergency readiness, managing cabin issues, and customer assistance. Opponents of the shift in duties worry the added task of selling credit cards could bring more mid-flight pitches and further blur job descriptions.
According to PYOK, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents nearly 30,000 American Airlines flight attendants, maintains the mandate crosses into protected job scope.
It argues that requiring the new training could give management room to expand or redefine what attendants are expected to do under their collective bargaining agreement.
More background
American Airlines already enables flight attendants to earn commission when passengers sign up for its Citi-issued AAdvantage credit cards. The cards target both consumer and business users and let customers earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points on flights, hotels, car rentals, and other purchases.
The union, meanwhile, has raised concerns about how the airline might evaluate compliance with the change in duties.
The airline can track successful credit card sign-ups in an online portal, per PYOK. The system is also used to track on-time performance, customer satisfaction, sick days, and other metrics.
The union's concern is that once sales data appears alongside those other measurements, credit card metrics could be compared across employees and eventually influence evaluations. That could mark a shift for workers whose jobs are supposed to prioritize safety over retail-style sales targets.
Even without a formal quota, stronger pressure to promote the cards could make flights less agreeable for passengers who would rather avoid an in-cabin pitch.
What's next?
In an internal memo cited by PYOK, the union said, "Our [job] scope is one of our most important protections. It is what prevents management from redefining what a Flight Attendant is and what they can be required to do on a whim."
"Whims," of a sort, may be a concern for the airline too. As TheTravel reported, American may view required sales training as a way to limit off-script credit card pitches.
Meanwhile, the airline has not yet said whether card sales will count toward attendants' performance scorecards, leaving it unclear whether the training becomes a true performance expectation.
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