Originally Posted by
BoilerUP
YGBSM.
AOPA provides a great service but are you really going to trust your career to an organization that specializes in general and not professional aviation? If so, you are much bolder than I am.
No, I'm not. ALPA legal does specialize in airline cases, however AOPA does offer specialized legal services for commercial and ATP rated pilots. I don't see much of a drop-off in quality there. Not enough to justify garnishing my wages by 2% and screwing up management-employee relations at SKW. Besides, if you use the ASAP program like it is designed this isn't even an issue. You inadvertantly break company policy or a regulation then fill out an ASAP form. Company can't terminate you and the Feds can't take your license. Worst case is you spend a few unpaid weeks at home and complete some sort of training.
As for the medical services I absolutely believe that AOPA offers the same level of service that ALPA does. Most likely better. AOPA's membership is how many times larger than ALPA? I bet the AOPA membership is also statistically older and more medically unfit than the ALPA membership. I don't have any hard stats to throw at you comparing how many medical issues AOPA deals with compared to ALPA, but common sense tells you that AOPA has more experience in this department.