American Airlines flight attendants ratified a concessionary contract offer, sparing the group from the potential abrogation of their current labor pact by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing the restructuring of American parent AMR Corp., AMR.LN 0.00% the Association of Professional Flight Attendants said Sunday.

The flight attendants wound up their ratification voting on Sunday, with 59.5% voting for American's final offer, to 40.5% turning it down, the union said. Nearly 93% of the eligible voters cast ballots.

By accepting the offer, the 18,000 cabin-crew members will be in line for larger pay increases, an early-retirement option for senior attendants and 3% of the equity of the reorganized company. If they had turned down the offer, American was expected to ask the judge to throw out their current contract and allow the company to impose more draconian terms on the group, including working more hours per month and receiving smaller raises.

AMR isn't legally required to come out of bankruptcy with new labor contracts in hand. But if it doesn't reach agreement with its pilots, the company may have trouble winning its creditors' support for any emergence plan and it would be more difficult for the company to raise funding in the future.