Alaska Airlines Pilots’ $500,000 Settlement: Lawyers Filed Their Fee Request on October 16 — Court Papers Put the Average Payout at About $1,476, and Objections Are Due October 31, 2026

The $500,000 Alaska Airlines settlement for pilots who lost vacation accrual during military leave reached its next step on October 16, 2026: class counsel filed their motion for attorneys’ fees with the court in Seattle (Dkt. 110), together with four supporting declarations (Dkt. 111 to 114). That is the filing class members were promised before they have to decide whether to object. The schedule class counsel proposed called for it “14 days before” the “objection/exclusion deadline,” and the objection deadline is October 31, 2026 (postmark). As of October 17, 2026, the motion itself is not publicly readable on CourtListener, so we cannot report the exact amount requested.

What we can report is how much the settlement is expected to pay. The plaintiff’s preliminary approval motion (Dkt. 105, filed July 15, 2026) does the math with the maximum deductions: “the expected Net Settlement Fund available for distribution to Class Members is approximately $240,541” — “approximately 48% of the Cash Settlement Amount.” It adds: “That expected net recovery equates to approximately $361 per non-accrual month and an average payment of approximately $1,476 per Class Member.” Those figures assume the full fee and service award and a Simpluris administration estimate of $6,959; they come before any litigation expenses and taxes, which the filing excludes. Nobody has to file a claim. This settlement covers 163 Alaska pilots only, not passengers.

The class is “all current and former Alaska 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 military leaves,” according to the official site. Each pilot’s share is “(the Class Member’s number of non-accrual months ÷ 666) × the net Settlement Fund.” The new detail from the court file is the spread: “individual Class Members ranging from 1 to 38 months (an average of approximately 4 months per Class Member).”

At the filing’s estimate of about $361 per month, that works out, by our arithmetic, to roughly $361 for a pilot with one month, about $1,444 for four months and about $13,718 for the pilot or pilots with 38 months. The individual estimate printed on each mailed notice is the number to rely on; ours are rounded illustrations. If the judge awards less than the maximum fee, the money stays with the class: the motion says “any amounts not awarded remain in the Settlement Fund for distribution to the Class.” And the official FAQ says “No portion of the Settlement Fund will revert to Alaska.”

For comparison, the same filing puts the gross recovery at “approximately $750 per non-accrual month,” which class counsel say “meets or exceeds” their estimate of the full per-month value of the lost accrual. When the checks go out is not dated. The administrator will “mail checks directly to Class Members following the Final Approval Order becoming Non-Appealable,” so not before the December 10, 2026 hearing, and later if anyone appeals.

The official FAQ sets the ceiling: “Class Counsel will not seek fees exceeding $247,500.00, plus reimbursement of litigation expenses.” The service award for the class representative is capped at $5,000. Counsel argue the fee is a discount. The preliminary approval motion says they spent more than 1,000 hours over “seven-plus years, representing a lodestar in excess of $1,000,000,” and agreed to take “no more than $247,500—less than one quarter of the fees actually incurred.” USERRA, the federal law on service members’ job rights, lets courts shift fees to the employer, and “no fees or court costs may ever be charged to Class Members personally under USERRA.” Still, every dollar of fees and expenses comes out of the $500,000 before pilots are paid, which is why the expense figure in the new motion matters.

Pilots in the class can do nothing and be paid, exclude themselves, or object. The official site says an objection can be aimed “to the Settlement, to the request for attorneys’ fees and expenses, or to the requested service award.” Both exclusions and objections must be in writing and postmarked on or before October 31, 2026. They go to the settlement administrator at P.O. Box 26170, Santa Ana, CA 92799, and must include the case name Synoracki v. Alaska Airlines, Inc., No. 2:18-cv-01784-RSL. You cannot do both. Staying in releases claims over vacation accrual for “military leaves of up to 90 days taken while employed at Alaska through March 31, 2026,” which is wider than the 31-to-60-day leaves that are paid.

The FAQ says the fee motion will be “posted on the Important Documents page” of the settlement site. That page loads by script and we could not confirm the upload as of October 17, 2026. Class members can ask the administrator for a copy at (888) 369-3780. Next on the schedule is class counsel’s motion for final approval, due 14 days before the hearing (November 26, 2026, by our count). The Final Approval Hearing is set for 11:00 a.m. on December 10, 2026 before Judge Robert S. Lasnik at 700 Stewart Street, Seattle. The FAQ notes it “may be continued to another date or conducted remotely.”

The settlement and its site, AlaskaMilitaryLeaveSettlement.com, run by Simpluris, are genuine. Class members were identified from Alaska’s own records and got a mailed notice with their personal estimate. The official site states: “You do not need to submit a claim form.” Any message about an “Alaska Airlines settlement” that asks a passenger to sign up, or asks anyone to pay a fee to get money from this case, does not match the court papers. Check with the administrator at (888) 369-3780, not with a number in the message.

Most people searching for an Alaska Airlines settlement are not pilots. Which plane had a door blowout? It was Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, a Boeing 737 MAX 9. AirlineGeeks reports that “the door plug failed about six minutes into an Alaska flight from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, in January 2024,” and that the NTSB found the plug “was missing four critical installation bolts” and placed responsibility on Boeing. The Seattle Times reported that Alaska refunded passengers and gave each a $1,500 cash payment. It also reported a lawsuit against Boeing filed in King County Superior Court on behalf of six passengers and the other 165 on board. The pilots’ settlement does not cover any of those claims; Flight 1282 passengers deal with their own lawyers and those lawsuits.

Is Alaska Air refundable? This case has nothing to do with tickets. Under federal rule 14 CFR 260.6, a U.S. airline “must provide a full and prompt refund of the airfare” when it cancels or significantly changes a flight and the passenger declines the alternative; such requests go to the airline, and then to the Department of Transportation. Who has Alaska Airlines merged with? Hawaiian Airlines: AirlineGeeks reports “the merger was completed on September 18, 2024.” Hawaiian pilots are not in this class.

Synoracki v. Alaska Airlines, Inc. was filed on December 12, 2018 in the Western District of Washington. It alleges that Alaska pilots stopped accruing vacation in months when military leave pushed them below the pay threshold, while pilots on comparable leave such as jury duty kept accruing. Alaska denies violating USERRA and says it is settling to avoid the cost and risk of further litigation. After a loss in the district court, a partial revival in the Ninth Circuit in 2024 and a second summary judgment ruling on March 13, 2026 that left one claim, the parties signed the agreement on June 17, 2026. Judge Lasnik granted preliminary approval on August 17, 2026, and the notice mailing was scheduled for September 16, 2026.

The October 16 filing is the last big document class members get to see before their deadline, so it matters more than its size suggests. If the judge cuts fees or expenses, every pilot’s check gets bigger. If the court approves the deal on December 10 and no one appeals, payments follow. We reported the settlement terms on October 11, 2026. This update adds the fee filing and the court’s per-month and average payment estimates, which are slightly lower than the ceilings we calculated then because they include Simpluris’s estimated cost.