Do You Get Paid During Flight Attendant Training? Pay, Per Diem, Costs

Do you get paid during flight attendant training? Usually, yes, but not in the way most jobs pay. Rather than a standard hourly wage, airlines typically hand out a modest weekly stipend, a lump-sum bonus at graduation, or some mix of the two, along with free housing, meals, and a per diem for the roughly six-to-eight-week program. United Airlines, for example, pays a $140 weekly stipend plus a $1,000 graduation bonus, while Southwest pays nothing during training and releases a $1,200 stipend only after you finish.¹² Knowing exactly what you’ll receive, and what you won’t, before you accept a conditional offer is what keeps training from turning into a financial squeeze.

How Airlines Pay Trainees

There is no industry standard. Each carrier writes its own policy, and the differences are large. Three models dominate: a weekly stipend paid throughout training, a lump sum paid at graduation, and, at a small but growing number of airlines, an hourly training wage. Some carriers blend elements of more than one.

United pays trainees $140 a week during its six-and-a-half-week program, provides two meals a day, and adds a $1,000 cash bonus for graduates.¹ Southwest takes the opposite approach. Training itself is unpaid; graduates receive a $1,200 stipend, minus taxes and benefit deductions, within five business days of finishing.² Wash out at Southwest in week four and you leave with nothing.

Some carriers pay in milestone chunks, releasing portions of the stipend after safety exams or specific training phases. If you don’t complete the program, any remaining amount is generally forfeited. A handful of airlines have shifted to an hourly training wage at or near the local minimum. The federal floor is still $7.25 per hour, but several states where major training centers sit now set minimums above $16 or $17 per hour, so the rate depends heavily on where the training facility is located.³

Regional carriers like Endeavor Air, Republic Airways, and SkyWest generally offer less during training than mainline airlines, and specifics rarely appear publicly until you receive your offer letter. Across the board, whatever you get during training will not feel like a real paycheck. Most trainees rely on personal savings to cover rent, car payments, and other bills back home for at least two months.

What Airlines Cover for You

The biggest financial benefit during training is usually not cash. Most major carriers provide company-sponsored housing for the full program, typically double-occupancy hotel rooms or dedicated dormitory buildings near the training headquarters. No rent, but not much privacy either. That arrangement removes what would otherwise be a major expense, since trainees often relocate temporarily to cities like Houston, Dallas, or Atlanta.

Airlines generally arrange travel to get you to the training center from your home city. Larger carriers usually book a confirmed seat, sometimes called “positive space” travel. Smaller regionals may only offer standby, which adds uncertainty if flights are full. Either way, the flight itself typically costs you nothing.

Meals vary by carrier. United provides two meals per day.¹ Others hand out meal vouchers for the training cafeteria or nearby restaurants at a fixed daily value. Some simply roll food costs into the per diem and expect trainees to manage. None of these arrangements are generous enough to eat out often.

Per Diem and How Taxes Affect It

Many airlines pay a per diem calculated as a set dollar amount per hour you’re away from home. Under the American Airlines flight attendant contract, meal expense rates run between $2.20 and $2.50 per hour depending on whether the travel is domestic or international.⁴ Endeavor Air pays per diem at $2.25 per hour.⁵ Over a full 24-hour day away from base, those rates translate to roughly $50 to $60.

Whether your per diem is taxable depends on how the airline administers it. The IRS treats per diem as a non-taxable reimbursement only when the payment doesn’t exceed the federal per diem rate and the employee files an expense report showing business purpose, date, and location.⁶ If the airline just hands you a flat daily amount with no expense report required, the IRS considers that taxable wages. Many training per diems fall into that second category. Check whether your training per diem appears on your pay stub as taxable income.

Stipends are almost always treated as taxable income. Both the weekly stipends and graduation bonuses above will have federal and state taxes withheld, reducing the actual cash that reaches you.

Costs You’ll Pay Before Training Starts

Training pay tells only half the story. Several upfront costs land before your first day of class, and airlines rarely reimburse them.

Passport. Every flight attendant needs a valid passport. A new adult passport book with expedited processing costs $225 (a $130 application fee, $35 acceptance fee, and $60 expedited fee). Renewal with expedited service runs $190. Standard processing can take months, so expedited service is effectively required if your passport is expired or close to expiring.⁷
Medical certificate. The FAA requires flight attendants to hold a valid medical certificate. The FAA doesn’t set the exam fee; Aviation Medical Examiners charge their own rates based on local market conditions, generally $75 to $200.⁸
Background check and fingerprinting. Federal background checks require fingerprinting, which typically costs $12 to $90 depending on where you are. Some airlines cover this; others pass the cost to you.
Uniforms. Not every airline provides free uniforms. Where the employee pays, the total can run $800 to $1,200, often deducted from post-training paychecks in installments rather than upfront. Ask during the hiring process so you’re not blindsided.

Add these up and you could easily spend $500 to $1,500 before earning anything. Bills at home don’t pause while you’re at training, either. Building a savings cushion of at least two to three months of living expenses before accepting a training offer is the single most practical step you can take.

What Happens If You Don’t Finish Training

Training programs have real washout rates. Safety exams, emergency procedure drills, and timed performance checks all carry pass-or-fail consequences, and airlines will not graduate someone who cannot meet the standard.

At airlines that pay a lump sum only upon graduation, leaving early or failing out means you get nothing. Southwest’s $1,200 stipend is explicitly tied to graduation.² At airlines that pay weekly stipends, you keep what you’ve received but forfeit the rest. United’s $1,000 graduation bonus requires successful completion of training, so leaving early means walking away from that money.¹

Some carriers include training repayment provisions in their employment contracts. These clauses require you to reimburse the airline for part or all of its training investment if you leave voluntarily or are terminated within a set period, often one to two years after graduation. Courts have generally upheld these agreements when the repayment amount roughly matches actual training costs and decreases over time. Read the fine print before you sign. If your offer letter contains a repayment clause, understand the total dollar amount, how it decreases over time, and whether it applies if the airline terminates you versus if you quit.

When Real Paychecks Start

Graduation is not payday. Standard payroll cycles mean your first full paycheck may not arrive for three to five weeks after training ends. You’ll be flying full schedules, but payroll processes the previous period’s hours in arrears. This is the last stretch where a savings cushion matters, and it surprises many new hires.

Once you do start flying, pay is built around flight hours, not a 40-hour week. United’s first-year rate is $28.88 per flight hour.⁹ Endeavor Air starts new hires at $26.23 per credit hour.⁵ Boarding pay is also beginning to appear in some contracts, narrowing the historic gap between hours worked and hours paid.¹⁰

Union dues won’t eat into those thin first paychecks right away. At United, new hires have a four-month grace period after graduation before any dues obligation begins.¹¹ Other airlines have similar introductory periods.

Why Airlines Can Legally Pay So Little During Training

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay at least minimum wage, but a legal exception allows companies to classify certain trainees as something other than employees.³ Courts apply a “primary beneficiary test” that looks at the overall relationship to decide who benefits most. Relevant factors include whether the training resembles an educational environment, whether the trainee’s work displaces paid employees, and whether both parties understand there’s no guarantee of a job at the end.¹²

Airline training programs check several of those boxes. Trainees spend weeks in classrooms and simulators learning safety procedures mandated by FAA regulations, including emergency evacuations, firefighting, and first aid.¹³ They don’t work revenue flights or replace existing crew. That structure gives airlines legal room to offer stipends rather than wages. Carriers that have moved toward hourly training pay or larger stipends are responding to a tight labor market as much as any legal obligation. If the airline you’re considering offers little or nothing during training, that’s currently legal in most cases, and worth weighing against offers from carriers that have chosen to do more.

1
United Airlines. Flight Attendant Information
2
Southwest Airlines. Flight Attendants
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act
4
Association of Professional Flight Attendants. Section 4 – Expenses
5
Endeavor Air. Flight Attendant Compensation
6
Internal Revenue Service. Per Diem Payments Frequently Asked Questions
7
U.S. Department of State. Passport Fees
8
Federal Aviation Administration. General Information – Examination Fees
9
United Airlines. Flight Attendant Pay
10
Association of Professional Flight Attendants. Contract Implementation Update 18 – Boarding Pay Begins April 1, 2025
11
United AFA. When Do I Become Obligated to Pay Dues
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 71 – Internship Programs Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
13
eCFR. 14 CFR Part 121 Subpart N – Training Program