As with everything there has been and will continue to be change. The big award is cumbersome but if they didn't put it out, someone would complain. People asked for a short award and that was published as well. Now there should be no reason to complain...

I don't think you have fully thought that out Dave. Pilot's are footing the bill for 1/3 of the cost - it ain't sick leave - we ALL will be subsidizing the cost of a healthy pilot going out on our dime. We are not the Federal Government Dave, we all share the pain of abuse.

And we all know that insurance providers never use their own investigators to, well, investigate.

Steady, Eddie. It's a long fall from that high horse you got there. If you qualify for sick leave, you almost certainly qualify for LTD. That means Long Term Disability. In fact, you can't even do it unless you burn through most of your sick leave, which means you can't legally qualify for a first class medical certificate.

I never said I'd do it, but at the same time, my wife knows, as do I, that passing a first class physical isn't a sure thing. I've had my challenges, and had I not fought to keep it, I'd have lost it. How hard would you say a pilot should have to fight, and how much money should a pilot have to spend before it'd pass your moral sniff test? Speaking of moral sniff tests, I'd say CAL...oops, I meant UAL management has set the bar pretty low, a fork of a lot lower than I or any of my friends would stoop to.

Do you plan on donating your unused sick leave to Smisek and his band of thieves when you've had enough? I don't.

Are you one of those guys that wishes every pilot senior to you would fall over dead? I'm not, and there are plenty of pilots senior to me.

I've donated thousands of $ worth of vacation days to more than a few pilots that I've never met before, BTW. Haven't ever asked for any, ever, either. I don't think I would, if the situation presented itself.

TW