401(k) True-Up Application for all Flight Attendants

MEC Benefits Committee

We want to provide clarification as to how the 401(k) true-up provision applies when allocating a percentage of your one-time payment to your retirement account.

As provided for in the Benefits Section (29) of our contract, matching contributions based on the Flight Attendant’s contributions for the plan year vary by the applicable retirement plan of the pre-merger or new hire group.

These matching contributions differ for the first half of the year (January 2026 – June 2026 paychecks) and the second half of the year (July 2026 – December 2026 paychecks) based on the ratification of the Contract and are trued-up on a per pay period basis for all Flight Attendants.

In point of fact, pre-merger United and all new hires since August 28, 2016, as well as pre-merger Continental and CMI Flight Attendants have a per pay period true-up process at Fidelity, ASC Trust, and within Payroll for the UK Group Stakeholder Plan.

The true-up is intended to ensure that Flight Attendants receive the full value of the company matching contributions during any given year by fixing any shortfalls that happen when an employer matches per pay period, but the employee maxes out their contributions early in the year or makes uneven contributions.

Given that there are different matches by group and across the plan year, due to the mid-year ratification of our Contract, let’s assume the following simplified example of a 4% match for the calendar year:

Your Annual Salary: $50,000 ($2,000 total potential annual match if you save at least 4%).

The Scenario: You decide to front-load and contribute as much of your one-time payment, hitting the annual employee contribution limit (402G limit) by September. Let’s assume then you don’t contribute from October through December; in which case, your per-paycheck matching stops early, leaving you with only $1,500 of matching funds deposited at this point in September.

The True-Up Adjustment: Each pay period, the plan administrator reviews your total compensation and your total contributions. They see you qualified for a match, but did not receive it because you had no employee contributions since you’ve previously maxed out the employee contributions.

The employer will deposit any remaining true-up corrections directly into your account on a per pay period basis to ensure that by the end of the year, you receive the full $2,000 match.

Remember this is intended to be a simplified example. For your specific matching contribution rates, for the current plan year, refer to Section 29 of our Contract.

* Eligible Earnings as defined under the 401(k) plan shall be the same for Flight Attendants as for other participants in the plan; provided that, at a minimum, Eligible Earnings will include base pay, sick pay, vacation pay, holiday pay, hourly incentive payments, overrides and premiums but shall exclude expense reimbursements, profit sharing payments, pension payments, imputed income or other similar awards or allowances. This shall apply to the UK Group Stakeholder Plan to the extent permitted by UK law.