In 1997 I purchased “NWA loss of license Insurance” from what I thought was Harvey Watt Pilot Insurance. But Harvey Watt Pilot Insurance was just managing an ALPA policy. It turns out that ALPA was (and is) selling and owns the pilot insurance policies. There is no mystery that Insurance companies fight claims when it’s cheaper for them to let the person die than pay what is owed. Insurance companies are typically client adversaries when they have to pay a claim. Do you see a conflict of interest brewing when your union owns your insurance policy?
The union is supposed to be supporting the pilot, when the pilot needs help. However, ALPA management directs the insurance administrator to fight the claim because they own it. ALPA employs an insurance company that appears to be the insurer, but is not. The insurance company then fights the claim with ALPA’s directive. If a union sells and profits from insurance policies, but creates an illusion that the policy is with an insurance company, this could be case of misrepresentation. Perhaps even fraud. As it turns out, all the insurance companies that ALPA used with NWA and Delta over the years are just “administering” the policy for ALPA.
ALPA is profiting from pilot disability insurance.
Fast forward to January 2023. I lost my medical. I applied for my loss of license insurance. A delightful lady from MetLife referred to this as my disability claim. I had assumed Delta sold my policy to MetLife. I explained to her that I did not have a disability, and I didn’t have any disability insurance. I explained that I had a “loss of license” policy and simply lost my medical due to medication I was taking. I had lost my first class medical and was applying for loss of license. Never was a disability claimed in any paperwork that I submitted. She understood and accepted my claim as Loss of License, and I received my benefits.
MetLife never told me that I did not have loss of license insurance, and per ALPA’s directive paid me despite no disability. ALPA acknowledged I had Loss of License.
Fast Forward to November of 2025. I was told that MetLife would stop my payments in February of 2026. NO! My NWA loss of license insurance was guaranteed until my mandated date of retirement. In my case, May of 2027. The MeltLife lady said it was only good for 27 months. We had many talks about this discrepancy, and she finally said, “Even if you show me the contract, we cannot pay you because ALPA has given the directive not to.”
This is when I learned that ALPA owned the policy, not MetLife. Alpa is profiting from these insurance policies and creating a conflict of interest with it’s members. Fighting their members so they do not have to pay.
1997 was back in the day when everything was in paper. I cannot locate my original contract. But I do know it was until end the end of mandated retirement with a fixed payment, or $250,000 lump sum. I asked ALPA for that contract. ALPA refuses to give it to me. ALPA claims I was on the Delta Disability insurance policy that began in 2008, and payments were only for 27 months and they provided me that payment schedule. I said, “No, I have NWA loss of license insurance from 1997.”
Then ALPA gave me a November 1998 delinquency notice and claimed I did not pay within the 14 days and lost my NWA Loss of License insurance. I claim that I did pay. I asked for the December 1998 statement and January 1999, that would prove if I paid or not. Jim Lobsenz, ALPA’s National attorney, refused to provide me that information. He said, “You didn’t pay.” I find it difficult believe anything that Mr. Lobsenz says, simply because I have first hand experience with the man. Besides, if it was true, why would he not simply show me the paperwork?
However, ALPA did give me two ALPA billing statements from January 2008 (Merger) and April 2023 (after retirement) that stated:
Current Insurance Plan: NWA Loss of License
It appears through my research that ALPA stopped selling the Loss of License insurance around 2000. They shifted to a disability Insurance. When NWA and Delta merged in 2008, forming a single operating certificate in 2009, ALPA began selling Delta disability insurance with a limited payment, not until the end of mandatory retirement. The schedule they gave me was the Delta disability plan schedule. However, I claim I had NWA Loss of License, and the record shows as much, yet they argue that I did not have NWA Loss of License when I retired.
How is it possible that my paperwork says “NWA Loss of License” in 2008 and in 2023, if I had not paid that delinquency, retained the insurance policy, and continued paying for the ensuing 26 years?
I tried to get ALPA to do the right thing and honor our contract. They refused. If ALPA changed my policy without telling me, and then retained the “NWA loss of license” indication on my statements, of which I relied up, that is fraud.
I argue that ALPA is in breach of contract and fraud.
Why would ALPA do this? Power. Money. Because they can. Maybe it’s because I filed a DFR against them and this is retaliation. My ALPA “tell all” book will be forthcoming after I finish law school, but to give you an indication of how ALPA participated with Delta in the illegal action against me, read the email that I had sent to Betty Ginsberg, lead ALPA Attorney in May of 2018. Note: She never investigated. Gordon and Rachel, mentioned in the email, were DALPA attorneys who were assigned to “help” me with the Delta issue.
I have thousands of pages and documents that prove all the statements within that email are true, and more. This doesn’t even touch ALPA’s efforts to destroy my case during a grievance hearing. That will be forthcoming in the memoir soon to be released.
The greatest travesty to the pilots is that our unions are under the Railway Labor Act. There is no protection when your union does bad. And ALPA does bad often. It’s not the union, it’s the people within. If we could make one positive change that would be to shift to the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) instead of the RLA. The RLA is a 1926 non-protective archaic statute that airlines do not belong in. Unions and Airlines alike love it, because they control the outcome on every grievance, pilots be damned.
More to come as this battle as it continues. I’ve contacted a Washington State Attorney to fight this. Today I am warning everyone: “Beware of ALPA’s Deception.” At least at Delta Air Lines, they are not working for the pilot but support the company and their own profitability, pilots be damned. Know that if you are paying thousands of dollars into an ALPA owned insurance policy you may not get paid at the end of the day.
Corruption at it’s Best:
ALPA billed me more than $5000 for back dues, for the two years I did not fly because of ALPA’s assistance with Delta to destroy my career. Because of ALPA’s part in that attack, I lost my medical. Now ALPA refuses to pay me the money they owe because they owned my Loss of License insurance policy. Think about that. You have to pay the guy who loaded the bullets for the man shooting you. But because that same guy holds your insurance policy, when you’re injured from the attack, he refuses to pay what is owed to you. Does anyone see a problem with this?
Legal battle will be forthcoming.
6 Comments
This is why we need “single payer” type medical insurance in the USA as this syndrome is the same scenario we have with regular medical insurance in the United States. One gets medical insurance whether it is through an employer or one buys it in the marketplace and then the insurer from then on will fight to avoid paying or reimbursing any medical expenses.
John, I had to look up to see what single payer was. I’m curious if they, too, try not to pay claims. This Loss of License insurance was unique to pilots. I suspect ALPA realized their liability with this and the reason they stopped selling the product. For example, had Delta got away with their strategy to pay Dr. Altman $74,000 to give me a false bipolar diagnosis, with ALPA’s help bypassing the contractual requirements, of which ALPA would have technically owed me that lump sum of $250,000. But if ALPA knew they intended to participate in falsely removing pilots medical certificates they could not afford to offer a policy such as loss of license. So they scrapped it. But… they proved to me I had that policy.
I bought Loss of License in 1981 and kept it until I medically retired in 2007. It was supposed to cover me until mandatory retirement age. When I tried to collect on the insurance, they told me I could not get it because I was receiving money from NWA/Delta (medical), and even if I could, it was only good for five years – money to ‘retrain’ and begin a new career! I told them Loss of License was a separate policy with no restrictions on receiving other money.
I fought and fought, which is hard to do when you are also fighting for your life with cancer as well as your career. Finally, too tired to fight anymore, I said, ‘Okay, but you might as well cancel the Loss of Life policy for everyone.’ They asked, “Why would we do that?” I told them I had friends at all the airlines and would be stuffing mailboxes for all the ALPA carriers, explaining that this very expensive policy would not pay.
The next day, the insurance carrier called me and said I was correct, and that they would start my payments, but only for five years! I was furious, but since I did not have my original policy (ALPA did), I couldn’t prove it. ALPA wouldn’t send me the information on my Loss of License, nor would they publish a write-up I wrote for their magazine explaining my issue. What a scam. I did not realize I was fighting the union – that they were the ‘insurance’ company. So much for union backing. I had to threaten them to make them do what I had paid for! And it wasn’t cheap insurance: my husband and I weighed the options every year as insurance costs rose with age.
Kathy, I know so many pilots who cancelled it due to the expense. It was not cheap. It’s hard to fight two battles…one with insurance and the other with your health. But when the insurance is your union that YOU paid thousands into, it’s a difficult thing to swallow when they betray you. I did not file a DFR (duty of fair representation) durning the seven years I fought Delta, because I was fighting for my career… and those battles are tough in themselves. Yours with your life, this is what insurance companies count on. The union, YOUR union, should never hold that role hoping you’ll die so they don’t have to pay. I’m sorry that happened to you.
So many conflicts of interest, especially since Mike Berry retired from the FAA and began working as Harvey Watt’s medical director. That’s a very closely knit arrangement.
Yes… and for those who don’t know who Berry is, he was the Deputy Federal Flight Surgeon. And, a little backstory, Berry worked for Delta back in the day and helped Delta with a false diagnosis against a Delta captain who reported pension fraud. A judge told Berry he could never work for Delta again. So, he went to the FAA and worked his way to the top. Then, he challenged the Western Division Medical Director who gave me my medical, why he did that. Wyrick said, “It was the right thing to do.” Berry ordered him to investigate and reevaluate his decision. Wyrick did the right thing. Berry was mentioned more times than once (not his name, just position) by Delta’s attorneys in the trial. I don’t think his “resignation” when Delta lost the lawsuit was a coincidence.