A contract puts a floor under our health plan. SkyWest keeps the floor.
Every AFA contract below writes the Flight Attendant's share of health costs into an agreement the company has to honor. At SkyWest the share is whatever the company decides each fall.
"The Company reserves the right to modify, amend, or terminate these benefits as they apply to all current, former, and retired employees."
SkyWest Company Policy Manual, Benefits DisclosureOur 2027 premiums, next to 2026
These are the per-paycheck costs from SkyWest's own 2026 and 2027 Health Plan Comparison sheets, single coverage unless noted.
Every plan, every coverage tier, the same 6.9% increase, chosen by SkyWest alone. Employers nationwide expect health costs to rise more than 8% in 2027, and this year's number came in under that. Nothing in any SkyWest document says next year's will.
Why that leaves us exposed
The price has no ceiling
A single Flight Attendant on the PPO now pays $5,056 a year in premiums. A family pays $12,878 before meeting a deductible. Nothing in any SkyWest document limits what next year's sheet can say.
The quarterly hours trap
Fall below 150 credit hours in a quarter (under 10 years' seniority) and SkyWest makes us "100 percent responsible" for the premium that quarter. United and Alaska have hours tests too, at 480 a year. Theirs measure twelve months instead of three, prorate for leave and furlough, and at United a Flight Attendant with a family emergency can claim an exemption the union can enforce. SkyWest's rule has none of that, and the company can change it at will.
We never see the math
SkyWest sets the rates and shows us the result. The documents that actually bind the company sit in the Benefits Manager's office, and the enrollment sheet we're handed is, in the manual's words, "subject to these binding documents."
No one else is tied to our plan
At PSA, Flight Attendants get the same plan as the airline's officers. At Alaska, the plan must be comparable to the pilots'. At SkyWest, whatever is done to the Flight Attendant plan can be done to Flight Attendants alone.
Side by side
SkyWest
Company policy- Who sets the Flight Attendant share
- The company, alone
- Cap on the Flight Attendant share
- None
- Cap on yearly increases
- None 6.9% this year, anything next year
- Union sees the numbers
- No
- Hours to keep the company share
- 150 credit hours per quarter (under 10 yrs). Miss it and we pay 100% of the premium that quarter. No proration, no hardship exemption
- Also written in
- Company may change or end the plan at any time
Alaska
AFA contract- Who sets the Flight Attendant share
- Negotiated
- Cap on the Flight Attendant share
- 20% of plan cost
- Cap on yearly increases
- 3% in 2026, then 8% a year
- Union sees the numbers
- Yes seat in the insurance RFP
- Hours to keep the company share
- 480 TFP per year. Sick leave and full vacation credit count, even when the vacation was unpaid. Restored the first full month after reaching 480
- Also written in
- Flight Attendant PPO comparable to pilots'
- Company-paid LTD to $5,000/mo
- Retiree health letter of agreement
Envoy
AFA contract- Who sets the Flight Attendant share
- Negotiated
- Cap on the Flight Attendant share
- Same as AAG Envoy staff; improvements flow through
- Cap on yearly increases
- Data reviewed before rates set
- Union sees the numbers
- Yes cost allocation shared before announcement
- Hours to keep the company share
- 540 credit hours per year for full-time rate; 350 keeps part-time rate. Prorated for leave
- Also written in
- Active-rate coverage for 12 months on medical leave
Frontier
AFA contract- Who sets the Flight Attendant share
- Negotiated
- Cap on the Flight Attendant share
- 32% of budgeted cost, all plans combined
- Cap on yearly increases
- Set by independent actuary
- Union sees the numbers
- Yes assumptions disclosed before final
- Hours to keep the company share
- Company benefit policy decides eligibility; not fixed in the contract
- Also written in
- Company-paid LTD
GoJet
AFA contract- Who sets the Flight Attendant share
- Negotiated
- Cap on the Flight Attendant share
- Same as non-union staff
- Cap on yearly increases
- Notice and discussion first
- Union sees the numbers
- Yes broker data 30 days before enrollment
- Hours to keep the company share
- Tied to leave status, not an hours count
- Also written in
- One plan can never fall below the 2023 Core Plan
Horizon
AFA contract- Who sets the Flight Attendant share
- Negotiated
- Cap on the Flight Attendant share
- Company's share can't shrink
- Cap on yearly increases
- Lesser of $10/mo or 15%; deductibles 20% max
- Union sees the numbers
- Yes advance notice of any change
- Hours to keep the company share
- 550 credit hours per year for full-time coverage; 350 keeps part-time coverage. Days out of active status earn constructive credit
- Also written in
- Company STD at 40% of income
Mesa†
AFA contract- Who sets the Flight Attendant share
- Negotiated
- Cap on the Flight Attendant share
- Parity with all Mesa employees; improvements flow through
- Cap on yearly increases
- Notify and discuss first
- Union sees the numbers
- Yes before any change
- Hours to keep the company share
- No hours test in the contract
- Also written in
- Insurance held in full while a hostage
Piedmont
AFA contract- Who sets the Flight Attendant share
- Negotiated
- Cap on the Flight Attendant share
- 19% → 25% on a fixed schedule
- Cap on yearly increases
- Written into the contract
- Union sees the numbers
- Yes plan documents on request
- Hours to keep the company share
- No hours test in the contract
- Also written in
- Dental up no more than $7.50/mo over the contract
- STD and LTD at no cost
- Retiree health at group rate
PSA
AFA contract- Who sets the Flight Attendant share
- Negotiated
- Cap on the Flight Attendant share
- Same plan as management, up to officers
- Cap on yearly increases
- 1% a year, 3% total
- Union sees the numbers
- Yes confer with MEC first
- Hours to keep the company share
- No hours test in the contract
- Also written in
- 26-week STD and LTD at no cost
United
AFA contract- Who sets the Flight Attendant share
- Negotiated
- Cap on the Flight Attendant share
- 20% of plan cost
- Cap on yearly increases
- 9.25% a year
- Union sees the numbers
- Yes actuarial data each year
- Hours to keep the company share
- 480 paid hours per year (about 40 a month). Prorated for leave, FMLA, furlough. Hardship exemption credits 40 hrs/mo; union can take a denial to arbitration
- Also written in
- Flight Attendant-specific plan
- Regional HMOs can't be dropped without AFA
- Survivor and retiree medical
What a contract changes
Health insurance is a mandatory subject of bargaining under the Railway Labor Act. The company cannot refuse to negotiate it, and once a term is ratified the company cannot change it alone. When a contract becomes amendable, its terms stay in force until Flight Attendants vote to replace them. That is why United's 20% cap is not a promise United made once. It is a rule United cannot rewrite without the Flight Attendants' consent, in any year.
A contract does not guarantee a cheap plan. Frontier's cap is 32%, and Piedmont negotiated a schedule that rose from 19% to 25%. What it guarantees is that the number was bargained, that it has a ceiling, that the union can see the arithmetic behind it, and that the company cannot change it between one enrollment sheet and the next. We have none of those four things.
Two things we hear
Every AFA contract on this page has a healthcare section, and none of it was handed over as a courtesy. United's Section 29 runs more than twenty pages with its own rate-setting letter of agreement. PSA's is one paragraph, and that paragraph caps increases at one percentage point a year. Long or short, the language is there because the Flight Attendants at each carrier put it on the table. Horizon's negotiated a $10-a-month limit on premium increases. Piedmont's wrote their cost share into the contract year by year. Those are specific, enforceable, and they exist because a group of Flight Attendants decided they mattered.
SkyWest may offer a reasonable plan this year. The question is who decides next year, and today the answer is SkyWest, by itself. Fall short on hours in any quarter and the full premium bill is ours, with no proration and no hardship exemption. The policy manual says the company "reserves the right to modify, amend, or terminate these benefits." And with employers nationwide bracing for 2027 health costs to climb faster than they have in years, nothing caps how much of that SkyWest can pass on to us. "Doing enough" describes a moment. A contract describes a floor.
Who decides what goes first
The SkyWest AFA negotiating committee will be SkyWest Flight Attendants, elected by SkyWest Flight Attendants, and the opening proposal comes out of a survey of the whole group. If healthcare ranks first in that survey, it leads the proposal. If pay or scheduling ranks higher, healthcare takes its place behind them. Nobody outside SkyWest makes that call.
The tentative agreement then goes back to every SkyWest Flight Attendant for a ratification vote, which is the second check on whether the healthcare language is good enough. The contracts above show the range that process produces, from a 20% cap at United to a fixed schedule at Piedmont. Each reflects what that group of Flight Attendants chose to fight for. We will make the same choice, and for the first time it will be ours to make.
This year it was 6.9%. Next year's number is still SkyWest's to pick.
† AFA negotiated the 2025 Mesa agreement before Mesa's merger with Republic; the combined group is now represented by a different union.
Sources
Sources: SkyWest 2026 and 2027 Health Plan Comparison sheets (mybenefits); SkyWest Company Policy Manual; SkyWest Flight Attendant Policy Manual; United–AFA 2026–2031 CBA §29 and LOA 12; Alaska–AFA 2025–2028 JCBA §23; Frontier–AFA CBA Art. 25; Horizon–AFA TA benefits article; Piedmont–AFA CBA §25 and §27; PSA–AFA CBA §25; GoJet–AFA CBA §18; Envoy–AFA CBA §20; Mesa–AFA 2025 TA §21; Mercer National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, 2027 cost projections.
This comparison was prepared with all information available to us. Please send any corrections to the SkyWest AFA organizing committee at timetofly@ooitstime.com.
