What Is a Flight Attendant Schedule in 2026?

A flight attendant schedule is built around two main categories: reserve (you’re on-call) or lineholder (you hold a fixed monthly schedule of flight sequences). Which one you get depends entirely on your seniority—how long you’ve worked for the airline. ShiftFlow helps businesses in various industries manage complex shift scheduling like airlines do.

New flight attendants start on reserve duty, meaning you don’t know your exact flights until you’re called. You might sit at home for days waiting for assignment, or get called at 3 AM to cover a flight because someone called in sick. Reserve flight attendants at major airlines typically have a monthly guarantee of 75-78 hours and at least 12 days off.

Once you build enough seniority—often taking several years—you can bid for actual flight lines. Lineholders know their schedule a month in advance. They bid on specific trips (called pairings or sequences) using a Preferential Bidding System (PBS) that awards schedules based on seniority ranking.

Quick Answer
Flight attendant schedules are either reserve (on-call with 75-78 hour monthly guarantee) or lineholder (fixed schedule bid monthly). New flight attendants work reserve for years before gaining seniority to hold a line. FAA requires 10 hours rest for duty periods ≤14 hours, 12 hours rest for longer duty periods. Schedules are bid monthly using seniority-based systems.

What Is Reserve Duty?

Reserve duty means you’re on-call to cover flights when the regular crew calls in sick, misses connections, or when flights need additional staff. You’re essentially the backup.

At American Airlines: First-year flight attendants are on straight reserve. After a full year, you move to rotating reserve. If you’re still on reserve after four years, the rotation becomes one month on reserve and three months holding a line. Reserve monthly guarantee is 75 hours with 12 days off.

At United Airlines: Reserve flight attendants have at least 12 calendar days off per bid month with a monthly guarantee of 78 hours, though sometimes lines may be built with up to 16 days off per month.

How it works: You’re assigned availability windows—blocks of time when you must be reachable and able to report to the airport within a specified timeframe (typically 2-3 hours). If crew scheduling calls during your availability window, you’re going to work. If they don’t call, you sit tight until your next availability period.

The uncertainty is the hardest part. You can’t make firm plans because you might get called. You’re getting paid for your guarantee hours whether you fly or not, but many reserve flight attendants end up flying more than their guarantee.

What Is a Lineholder?

A lineholder is a flight attendant with enough seniority to bid for and hold actual monthly flight schedules instead of sitting on reserve.

At Delta Air Lines, flight attendants can reach lineholder status by year four, though this depends on strategic bidding and seniority accrual at your base.

As a lineholder, you know your schedule a month in advance. You bid on specific pairings—multi-day flight sequences that might be a 3-day trip with flights from New York to Los Angeles to Seattle and back. Each pairing shows exactly which flights, layover cities, report times, and total credit hours.

Lineholders typically fly more hours than reserve flight attendants because they’re actively scheduled for trips rather than waiting on-call. However, they have far more schedule predictability and control.

How Does the Bidding Process Work?

Airlines use a Preferential Bidding System (PBS)—electronic software that creates both lineholder and reserve schedules based on your preferences and seniority.

Each month, flight attendants submit their bid preferences: which trips they want, which days off, which layover cities, how many duty hours, whether they prefer short turns or multi-day pairings. You rank everything in order of importance.

The PBS system processes all bids in strict seniority order. The most senior flight attendant gets first pick of available trips. Then the next most senior. And so on down the list until every flight attendant has an assigned schedule.

If you’re senior: You’ll probably get most of what you bid for—desirable trips, weekends off, favorite layover cities.

If you’re junior: You get whatever’s left after everyone senior to you has picked. Often that means less desirable trips, working holidays, red-eyes, and reserve duty.

This is why seniority is everything in the airline industry. Every month you work adds to your seniority, slowly improving your ability to hold better schedules.

What Are FAA Rest Requirements?

The FAA regulates how long flight attendants can work and how much rest they must receive:

For duty periods of 14 hours or less: Flight attendants must receive at least 10 consecutive hours of scheduled rest. This rest period cannot be reduced under any circumstances. This represents a significant change—previous regulations allowed only 9 hours, which could be reduced to 8 hours in certain situations.

For duty periods longer than 14 hours but no more than 20 hours: Flight attendants must receive at least 12 consecutive hours of scheduled rest.

These regulations took effect November 14, 2022 and apply to all domestic, flag, and supplemental operations. The updated rules were codified in 14 CFR § 121.467 and remain in effect as of 2026.

What this means practically: If you finish a 4-day pairing at 11 PM on Thursday, you cannot be scheduled for another duty period until at least 9 AM on Friday (10 hours later). The airline must build this rest time into your schedule—it’s not optional or negotiable.

What Is a Typical Flight Attendant Schedule?

Reserve schedule example:

12-16 days off per month (not consecutive)
Availability windows assigned throughout the remaining days
Must remain within 2-3 hours of the airport during availability
Might fly 0 days or 15+ days depending on operational needs
Guaranteed 75-78 hours of pay regardless

Lineholder schedule example:

Bid for 4-day pairing: depart Monday morning, layovers in three cities, return home Thursday night
Three days off
Bid for 2-day pairing: out Saturday, back Sunday evening
Four days off
Bid for 3-day pairing: Wednesday through Friday
Schedule provides 85-95 flight hours for the month

Schedules vary dramatically by base, seniority, and airline. A senior lineholder in New York might work 12 days and have 18 days off. A junior reserve flight attendant at the same base might have availability 18 days with actual flying on 10 of those days.

How Does Seniority Affect Flight Attendant Schedules?

Everything. Seniority determines:

Whether you’re on reserve or hold a line
Which trips you can bid and successfully hold
Which days off you get
Which base (home airport) you can hold
Whether you work holidays or get them off
How quickly you can trade or drop trips

A flight attendant hired in 2022 will always be junior to someone hired in 2021, even if both are still at the same airline in 2035. That 2021 hire date gives permanent seniority advantage.

At major airlines, it commonly takes 3-5 years before new flight attendants have enough seniority to reliably hold lines. At some bases with less turnover, it can take even longer. At rapidly growing airlines or bases with high turnover, you might hold a line sooner.

What Challenges Do Flight Attendants Face with Scheduling?

Reserve uncertainty is brutal for planning personal life. You can’t commit to anything when you might get called to work at any moment during your availability windows.

Commuting adds complexity. Many flight attendants don’t live in their base city—they commute on flights from where they actually live to their base to start trips. Miss your commuter flight and you might miss your scheduled trip, which creates attendance issues.

Circadian disruption from constantly changing time zones and sleep schedules affects health. Red-eye flights, early morning check-ins, and crossing multiple time zones repeatedly takes a physical toll.

Holiday and weekend work is unavoidable when you’re junior. Planes fly on Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s. Junior flight attendants work those days while senior colleagues have them off.

Fatigue management remains challenging despite FAA rest requirements. A 10-hour rest period between duty periods sounds reasonable until you account for transportation to/from the hotel, time to actually fall asleep, and waking up early enough to prepare for the next day. Effective sleep time is often much less than the legal rest period.

What’s the Bottom Line?

Flight attendants work either reserve (on-call) or lineholder (fixed schedule) based on seniority. New flight attendants spend years on reserve with 75-78 hour monthly guarantees before gaining enough seniority to hold lines. Schedules are bid monthly using Preferential Bidding Systems, with senior flight attendants getting first pick. The FAA requires 10 hours rest for duty periods ≤14 hours and 12 hours rest for longer duty periods.

Quick summary:

Reserve duty: on-call with 75-78 hour guarantee, 12+ days off, assignment uncertainty
Lineholder: bid monthly schedule in advance based on seniority
Bidding uses Preferential Bidding Systems (PBS) in strict seniority order
Takes 3-5 years on average to hold a line at major airlines
FAA rest: 10 hours for duty ≤14 hours, 12 hours for duty 14-20 hours
Seniority determines everything: trips, days off, base, schedule quality
2026 tools: mobile rostering, AI-supported scheduling, preference optimization

Ready to manage complex crew scheduling? ShiftFlow’s scheduling software handles seniority-based bidding, compliance tracking, and shift trading for 24/7 operations. Try our free time clock to track work hours, or explore our solutions and view pricing.

Sources

FAA – What are the flight attendant duty period and rest requirements?
eCFR – 14 CFR § 121.467 - Flight attendant duty period limitations and rest requirements
APFA – Flight Attendant PBS Guide
Future Flight Attendant – Flight Attendant Reserve - What Is It & What Important Things Do You Need To Know?
Aviation A2Z – Delta Attendant Faced Years on Reserve Before Reaching $78,000 Salary
Dreamix – Airline Crew Rostering: Capturing Business Value in 2026
SpoSaaS – ARCOS RosterApps Explained: Transforms Airline Scheduling Industry In 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a flight attendant schedule?

A flight attendant schedule is either reserve (on-call) or lineholder (fixed monthly schedule). Reserve flight attendants cover open flights with 75-78 hours monthly guarantee and at least 12 days off. Lineholders bid for specific flight sequences based on seniority. Schedules are created monthly using preferential bidding systems.

What is reserve duty for flight attendants?

Reserve duty means you’re on-call to cover flights when regular crew calls in sick or flights need additional staff. At American Airlines, reserve guarantee is 75 hours with 12 days off. At United, it’s 78 hours with 12-16 days off. New flight attendants spend years on reserve before gaining enough seniority to hold a line.

How long are flight attendant rest periods?

FAA regulations require flight attendants scheduled to duty periods of 14 hours or less to receive at least 10 consecutive hours rest, which cannot be reduced. For duty periods longer than 14 hours but no more than 20 hours, flight attendants must receive at least 12 consecutive hours rest. These requirements became effective November 14, 2022.

How long does it take to become a lineholder?

At major airlines, it typically takes 3-5 years before new flight attendants have enough seniority to hold lines regularly. At Delta, flight attendants can reach lineholder status by year four with strategic bidding. Timeline varies by airline, base, and hiring patterns. Rapidly growing airlines or bases with high turnover may allow faster progression.

What is a Preferential Bidding System (PBS)?

PBS is electronic software that creates monthly flight attendant schedules based on preferences and seniority. Flight attendants submit bid preferences ranking desired trips, days off, and schedule characteristics. The system processes all bids in strict seniority order, awarding the most senior flight attendant first pick, then moving down the seniority list.

Do flight attendants work holidays?

Yes, airlines operate 365 days per year. Junior flight attendants typically work holidays while senior colleagues have them off based on bidding. Holiday work is unavoidable early in your career. As you gain seniority, you’ll have better ability to bid for holiday time off.

Can flight attendants trade trips?

Yes, most airlines allow trip trading within contractual and operational constraints. Flight attendants can swap trips with colleagues, pick up open flying for extra pay, or drop trips through trip trading systems. Mobile apps have made trip trading much easier in 2026, enabling real-time schedule adjustments.

How many days off do flight attendants get?

Reserve flight attendants typically have 12-16 days off per month, though these may not be consecutive. Lineholders structure their schedules based on trip bidding—a common pattern might be 12-15 working days with 15-18 days off, but this varies significantly by seniority, base, and individual preferences.