How to Calculate a Flight Attendant Duty Rig and Trip Rig (Worked Example)
A flight attendant can be on duty for 9 hours and have only 4.5 of them count as flying. If pay followed block time alone, that day would pay about half of the hours at work. Most flight attendant contracts add a safety net for exactly this gap, and it goes by an odd name: a rig.
This post is the calculation side. It shows how to turn report and release times into decimals, how a duty rig and a trip rig are worked out, and why the number on the pay statement is the greatest of several. For the basics of block time, boarding pay and the monthly guarantee, see our earlier post on how flight attendant pay is calculated.
Three clocks, not one
A single trip can be measured three ways:
- Block time: the aircraft moving from the gate and back to a gate, leg by leg. This is the usual pay clock.
- Duty time: from report to release. In one published contract (American Airlines and the APFA, 2024), a domestic duty period starts one hour before scheduled departure at the crew base and ends 15 minutes after the aircraft blocks in (Section 11, paragraph N).
- Time away from base (TAFB): from the first report to the last release of the whole trip, layovers included.
A rig is a minimum that turns one of the longer clocks back into pay credit.
Step 0: turn hours and minutes into decimals
Every rig calculation is easier in decimal hours. Divide the minutes by 60 and add the hours. A flight attendant union's own guide gives the pattern: 12:13 becomes 13 / 60 = 0.217, so 12.217 hours (TWU Local 556, "FAQ: RIGs"). The same way, 4:30 is 4.5 and 3:30 is 3.5.
The two ratios, as published in real contracts
Ratios are contract terms and they differ, so treat the ones below as examples of the shape, not as your rate.
- Duty rig, 1 for 2: one hour of pay and credit for every two hours of actual on-duty time, prorated by the minute. This is in the 2024 American/APFA text, paragraph D.5, and the United flight attendants' union describes the same ratio for its joint contract (United AFA).
- Trip rig, 1 for 3.5: one hour of pay and credit for every three and a half hours of time away from base, prorated (American paragraph D.4; the United page says the same).
- Minimum per duty period: American's text also guarantees at least 5 hours of pay and credit for a one-duty-period sequence, and at least 3 hours per duty period when a sequence has more than one.
- The decision rule: the Flight Attendant receives "the greatest of" flight time, the minimums, the on-duty rig and the trip rig (paragraph D.1). United's page describes the same comparison.
Ratios also change between contract versions and airlines. An older American text used 1 for 2.25 for duty between 0600 and 2159, and 1 for 2 overnight (older APFA Section 11). Southwest's agreement counts pay in "TFP" credit units and uses its own ratios: 0.74 TFP per duty hour, and one TFP per three hours away from base (TWU Local 556). For example, 8:30 on duty is 8.5 x 0.74 = 6.29 TFP there.
Worked example 1: a 2-day trip
Everything below is invented, except that the two ratios are borrowed from the American text above. The rate is $40 per credit hour. Other minimums are ignored to keep it readable.
| Report | Release | Duty | Block | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | 06:00 | 15:00 | 9:00 | 4:30 |
| Day 2 | 07:00 | 17:00 | 10:00 | 3:30 |
- Block time: 4.5 + 3.5 = 8.0 hours.
- Duty rig: duty is 9 + 10 = 19 hours. 19 / 2 = 9.5 hours. (By day: 4.5 + 5.0.)
- Trip rig: 06:00 on Day 1 to 17:00 on Day 2 is 24 + 11 = 35 hours away. 35 / 3.5 = 10.0 hours.
- Greatest of the three: 10.0 hours.
- Pay: 10.0 x $40 = $400. On block time alone it would be 8.0 x $40 = $320, so the rig adds 2.0 hours, or $80.
Dividing the same $400 by each clock shows why the clock matters:
- per block hour: $400 / 8 = $50.00
- per duty hour: $400 / 19 = $21.05
- per hour away from base: $400 / 35 = $11.43
Worked example 2: the short turnaround
The American text includes its own example. A Miami-based flight attendant flies a turnaround with segments of 1:10 and 1:05. That is 2:15 of flying, or 2.25 hours. A one-day sequence has a 5-hour minimum, so the contract adds 2:45 on top (Section 11 examples). Check: 5.0 - 2.25 = 2.75 hours, which is 2:45.
Our rate is invented again. At $40: 5.0 x $40 = $200, against 2.25 x $40 = $90 on block time alone. The duty rig does not win here. With report one hour before a 6:30 p.m. departure and release 15 minutes after a 9:40 p.m. block-in, duty is about 4 hours 25 minutes, so the duty rig is only about 2.2 hours. The minimum wins.
What a rig does not do
- It is not per diem. Per diem is an allowance for meals and incidentals, measured by time away from base. The IRS has a separate "special rate for transportation workers" in Publication 463 ($80 a day in the 2025 edition). Tax treatment is a question for a tax preparer.
- It may not stack the way you expect. Southwest's union FAQ says its extended ground-time pay and extended-duty premiums are paid on top of rigs, and that rigs are not paid on a sick call. That is one contract. Others differ.
- It is not federal overtime. The overtime part of the federal wage law does not apply to employees of air carriers covered by the Railway Labor Act (29 U.S.C. 213(b)(3)). That exemption is about overtime only. Minimum wage is a separate section, which is why guarantees like rigs matter. Our post on the Bernstein v. Virgin America case is covered in the block-time article. Reserve duty has its own rules, see reserve lines, short call and long call.
Check your own trip in five steps
- Write down report, release, block time per leg and total time away.
- Convert every time to decimal hours (minutes / 60).
- Find your contract's ratios and minimums in its pay and hours-of-service sections.
- Compute each rig separately, then compare them with block time and any per-duty-period minimum.
- Pay the greatest, and compare with the credit shown on your trip sheet or pay statement.
Keeping your own record of report and release times makes step 1 easy to verify later. Duty Pals, a shift calendar for Android, is on Google Play.
General information only, with invented figures. Flight attendant pay is set by each airline's collective bargaining agreement, and ratios, minimums and rounding rules differ and change. This is not legal, tax or financial advice. Your union representative, payroll department or a licensed professional can speak to your own situation.