Nobody would question you doing it. I've done it before.

A buddy of mine recently had his niece go in for a transplant, called and explained and scheduling said hurry home. He looked back and it was a sick day. I figured, since I've never asked, that all I had to say was my son was in the hospital. I got okay your personal dropped. I asked the chief pilot and they said, sorry, it's a personal drop, it cannot be a sick call. Makes you question whether it's ever good to tell the truth around here unless you dinged something.

So my guess is I will have a $10K bill. Pay somewhere around $2K out of pocket today to add to the $1K still paying on for my daughters ER visit and then pay 20% out of pocket for everything but a well visit for the rest of the year. Oh and minus $1K in pay unless I do the bank option. Too bad my emergency cash on hand went from five figures to three in the last four years. It rained a lot. So hello profit sharing!

BTW, what's up with schedulers who don't say their name when they answer the phone? If you don't hear a name, hang up. you've got the wrong department if you know what I mean.

MODERATORS! 80 just posted a magic eye .gif of a naked Katy Perry. Just saying. If you stare at it long enough you can hear her saying "TEBOW!"

Katy is in looooove with Tebow.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zjdkqGiog1...tim-tebow2.png

See, someone already has this up:

http://photos-2.posh24.com/p/1509287..._tim_tebow.jpg

14.A.7 of the CBA requires a pilot to call in sick if mentally unable to work. I really doubt the company would get far (nor do I think they would try) pressing the case to an arbitrator/system board that a serious, even potentially deadly, injury or illness of an immediate family member doesn't satisfy that requirement.

I've learned a lot today about our health plans and other people's stories. My minor *****ing started a useful discussion. I'm glad I posted it.

All these medical coverage horror stories further my assertion that we must, MUST have ironclad contractual health plans in C2012 (beyond the DPMP silliness).

As it stands right now, we could negotiate some significant payraises, but since the health plans are provided at the pleasure of the company, there is absolutely nothing in place to prevent them from erasing those pay increases by giving us the "tin" and "aluminum" health plans instead of the "platinum" and "gold."

It would be unacceptable if our pay "raises" disappear with premium, deductible, etc. increases due to failing to lock down our medical coverage. We don't want to pay out the ass to visit Dr. Nick's hobby shop.

Our health plans are certainly not the best in the working world however there are contractual protections in place to prevent some of what you post. Take the time to read section 25.

Just like Section 1 provides "contractual protections" from some of the Alaska codeshare? Or "protections" from competing directly with some of our outsourced vendors (Republic)? Well, we sure should have those protections...if only DALPA was serious about enforcing the contract.

Who knows, maybe DALPA will be pressured by the company to give away some of those "protections" in Section 25 in C12. Nah, impossible. DALPA has never pulled anything like that before.

But you're right that the the health plans are "certainly not the best." Have you read an of the preceding horror stories? They're an embarrassment. What is DALPA going to do to fix it?

You all know where Richard Anderson was working before Delta bought out his $15M contract to get him to come here?

UHC.

I wonder if he's still on the Board of Directors there, and if he still owns any stock in UHC.

I also wonder if Richard is on the Platinum Plan, how much he pays for that every month, and what his deductibles are.

http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/abo...-Directors.pdf

Well, no Richard. Still...he was there for awhile prior to DL, makes me wonder if he's still got stock there and how much control he has, if any.

My experience has been completely different.

We use a lot of health care in my family. The HSA defines how much I'm going to spend each year (we hit the deductible and max out of pocket). I've not had any problems that a follow-up call to UHC or the ALPA benefits specialist didn't fix, and I've only had to make about 1 of those per year. Considering the amount we cost in health care it seems like a reasonable check and balance. The continuous Ingenix subrogation letters are a pain, but they've never denied a claim.