Alaska Airlines $500,000 Military Leave Settlement: deadline Oct 31, 2026, who qualifies

Alaska Airlines pilots who didn't accrue vacation time during military leave may be eligible to claim a cash payment from a class action settlement.

Who qualifies and how to claim

Employment · Pending — Automatic Payment

Current Status

There is nothing to file. Alaska Airlines has agreed to pay $500,000 to resolve claims that its pilots did not accrue vacation during military leaves lasting between 31 and 60 consecutive days, and class members are paid from the airline's own employment records without submitting anything. The court granted preliminary approval on August 17, 2026 and notices have been mailed to the 163 people Class Counsel identified as class members. A class member who wants to leave the settlement or object to it must act by October 31, 2026. The final approval hearing is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on December 10, 2026 before Judge Robert S. Lasnik in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington; no final approval order has been entered and no payment date had been announced as of September 20, 2026.

What Changed Recently?

This is a new claim process on a case that has been running since December 2018, and it reached settlement only after the claims in it were cut down twice. On March 13, 2026, the court granted part of Alaska Airlines' second summary judgment motion and denied the rest, which left a single claim alive: that pilots should have accrued vacation during military leaves lasting between 31 and 60 consecutive days. The parties then negotiated and executed a settlement agreement on June 17, 2026, and the court granted preliminary approval on August 17, 2026.

Alaska Airlines denies that it violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act and denies any wrongdoing or liability. The agreement states the airline is settling to avoid the cost, disruption and uncertainty of continued litigation, and that nothing in it may be treated as a finding against the airline.

Who Qualifies?

The court certified a settlement class of current and former Alaska Airlines pilots who took military leave lasting between 31 and 60 consecutive days at any time from October 10, 2004 through March 31, 2026, and who did not accrue vacation during those leaves. People who previously settled with Alaska or obtained a judgment against it that resolved or released these same claims are excluded.

Class Counsel identified 163 people who meet that definition from data Alaska produced in the case, and each of them was mailed a notice. Membership is determined by the airline's records rather than by anything a pilot does, so a pilot who never received the notice is still in the class if the records show a qualifying leave.

Two groups of pilots who followed this case will not see money from it. The sick-time accrual claim is gone, and so is the vacation claim for military leaves of 61 to 90 days — both fell out at summary judgment before the settlement was negotiated.

How Much Can You Get?

Payments are pro rata and keyed to time, not to salary. Under the proposed Plan of Allocation, each class member's share is the number of monthly bid periods in which that pilot did not accrue vacation because of a qualifying military leave, divided by 666 — the total number of such months across all 163 class members — multiplied by whatever is left in the fund. An individualized statement showing the number of non-accrual months and an estimated award was included with each mailed notice, and that statement is the figure to rely on.

What comes out of the $500,000 first: Court-approved attorneys' fees, which Class Counsel has agreed not to request above $247,500; reimbursement of litigation expenses; the costs of administering the settlement; any taxes owed by the fund; and a service award to the class representative of no more than $5,000. No part of the fund reverts to Alaska Airlines.

Documents & history

What has happened

Documents

Court filings come from the court's public docket through the free RECAP archive; official documents from the settlement administrator's own site. Other dates come from the official settlement site and the summary above. Nothing here is legal advice. Last checked Oct 24, 2026.

About this information

All of it is publicCompiled from court-approved settlement websites and public class action listings. We're not affiliated with the court, the settlement administrator or any law firm.

Refreshed automaticallyWe re-check our sources on a schedule. A source last listed this case on Oct 24, 2026, and our latest refresh ran Oct 24, 2026.

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Not legal adviceDetails can change. Confirm that you qualify, and the deadline, on the official settlement website before you file.