Aicrew Legal
 

Hi folks. I recently left BALPA and the above company/organisation (Aircrew Legal Protection Ltd)have been suggested for legal protection. I'm also considering the IPA. Anybody out there having experience of either, good or bad, I'd be very pleased to hear your thoughts/experiences. If you'd rather PM me that'd be fine. Thanks in anticipation. :ok:

The IPA encouraged me to join and then instantly refused to represent my interests within the company.......... Useless !

Thks for that A and C. Care to give a bit more backgrnd/context? Feel free to PM if you would prefer.

I fell out with BALPA 30 years ago. I joined Alan Hill's ALPL and always felt comfortable that someone would look after my ar+e if I slid off a Greek runway when my own company might not choose to defend me.

Cmon folks!! There are surely more peeps out there with experience of Aircrew Legal and/or the IPA? Please share your experiences...:ok:

I second A & C.

I represented the interests of our Pilots with the IPA in a company that is now no more. The IPA in my opinion were not a lot of help.

I was a member of BALPA for many years and for a very short time a company rep. BALPA were a much more effective association in our airline, a big British one it must be said.

To sum up: I would have to say that with my experience of both, and in completely different airlines, I would put my money with BALPA.

In my airline there was an "incident" where the company went after the crew. The F/O, represented by BALPA, was down the road while the Captain, represented by ALPL, continued his employment.

Make of that what you will.

Thanks for your comments folks. Much appreciated. :ok:

Seriously you try to get people to make a judgement with no information whatsoever, what if the F/O hit the captain unprovoked. Or any other bits of information that would be pertinent. Perhaps a job at the daily mail would suit you.

I have no intention of expanding further other to say it was a reportable accident (no casualties).

So essentially you're adding no value to the conversation. Why even post?

Aicrew Legal
 

It doesn't add value because it is completely out of context. It's like saying "I want to go on holiday to Tenerife, anyone have any comments" and getting a reply " I know someone who went once he didn't like it" well why, was it the flight the weather the hotel were you I'll was it wet/cold/hot etc. "Not telling" Without context it's a completely meaningless comment.

I'm not asking for mushroom to give details but If you're not willing to expand don't put the comment in the first place as it doesn't help.

Was the skipper let down by Balpa. Was he actually in arrears of his membership, was he wilfully negligent and that's why he got shown the door. Or did he, as is often the case decide to bow out gracefully, was it chinese whispers. I know plenty of examples of things that I'm not willing to elaborate on and because of that I won't even mention them.

I'm not taking either side for or against Balpa as I have no experience of alpl and am a fully paid member of Balpa. But mushroom's comment makes it impossible to make anything as there just isn't enough info for it to be valid.

In my experience you need both so that you can play one off against another.

You also need some spare readies as either may dump your case at the last minute.

This happened to me - and a spare thousand quid paid for the barrister who got me off the hook.

If you doubt my advice then get your licence out and work out how much it is worth until retirement and beyond.

I was in an airline (could be the same) as Mushroom 2 where the BALPA FO got the heave-ho and the skipper kept all after an incident. It's always been in the back of my mind that the non-BALPA legal protection pilot kept everything the same and the BALPA guy didn't.

ALPL provide legal expenses insurance (primarily for individuals) not the same thing as trade union membership. With insurance the insured and underwriters are bound by the terms of the policy, whereas I suppose a trade union is bound by it's rules.

You can read a draft of ALPL'S policy here