President Bill Cottrell's

   By the time you read this column, our plans will be pretty well in place for the 2008 Convention Annual General Meeting in Estero, Florida. I hope your hotel suite and registration have been taken care of, as the announced cut-off date just passed. If you accidentally forgot, you might quickly call me at (925) 935-5315 to see if you could still be accommodated. With the April 16-18 dates set somewhat earlier than average, the registration cut-off was earlier also. We would certainly enjoy seeing all our TWA friends there!
   Possibly making your trip to Florida easier, don’t forget the Airline Retirees Pass Bureau (ARPB) that was described in the last Skyliner. Many of you responded to that opportunity right after reading the news. When I phoned them just one day after that issue was received, I was told that more than 20 TWAers had already called before me! The added number of airlines they offer should be a help in your travel planning. A minor mistake showed up in the December article – their correct Email address is: airlineretirees@hotmail.com
   On a different subject, I hope that your health insurance has been working OK for you... (and hope you haven’t needed it!). The same difficulty some of us had with United Healthcare-American Airlines insurance not reimbursing properly still persists for Medicare ‘D’ prescription drug purchases that exceeded the annual $2000 “out-of-pocket” limit.  American knows  about

the difficulty, and a special agent is assigned to get corrections made when needed. Please contact me if you believe you aren’t being correctly reimbursed when you have had large drug costs, and I will get you connected with the right person. By the way, you probably noticed the monthly premium for “over-65” policy holders actually decreased by 30 Dollars this year. This unusual situation undoubtedly was a result of the separate coverage made necessary by the new Medicare ‘D’ laws, and UHC’s resulting lower expenses.
   I’m really looking forward to greeting you in Florida, and enjoying that great Springtime sun at the beach........
   Happy travels,……………Bill Cottrell