American Airlines to Offer Employees Who Get Vaccinated an Extra Vacation Day

By Kurt Stolz on 5 March 2021
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Masked American Airlines employees at the new LaGuardia Airport

American Airlines is not only offering its employees vaccinations against the coronavirus at some locations, it’s offering those who get vaccinated a bonus.

The carrier’s top two executives, in a memo to employees viewed by Frequent Business Traveler, offered an incentive of an extra vacation day in 2022 as well as $50 in what the airline calls recognition points.

“”As we close out the first week of March, we remain optimistic that 2021 will be a year of recovery for American. We still don’t know how quickly demand will return, but we know vaccines will be an important part of the recovery,” said Doug Parker and Robert Isom, the airline’s CEO and president, respectively, in the memo. “That’s why we are fully engaged in the effort to make vaccinations available to our team as quickly and widely as possible.”

Parker and Isom underscored the importance of getting the vaccine and reminded the 102,000 employees that some of their colleagues have already been lost to it.

“Get vaccinated as soon as possible – [both] to protect yourself and other,” the two executives urged, reminding their colleagues that “[M]ore than 500,000 people in the United States have lost their lives to Covid-19, including some of our own colleagues.”

The airline currently offers the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to employees in the Chicagoland area and is looking to roll out similar programs in other hub cities.

American is far from the only company incentivizing vaccinations against the novel coronavirus.  Competitor Delta Air Lines announced a similar program in February, while Marriott announced an incentive program on Friday. In addition, companies ranging from McDonald’s to Instacart are offering their workers incentives as well.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

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