Braniff went bankrupt in May 1982, the first airline loyalty program (AAdvantage) had been launched just one year earlier in May 1981. What happened twenty-seven years ago during the infancy of airline frequent flyer programs is absolutely no indication of what would occur now.

Aloha, much like the Ansett example folks keep throwing out, is not a market comparable to that of the major US carriers.

ATA, in addition to being a relatively small airline, did not have a mileage based frequent flyer program that would have lent itself to being absorbed by most other carriers, and more importantly, they really did not have an established customer base many other airlines would be interested in acquiring since they had only operated as a scheduled airline for a few years, unlike the major carriers we are discussing here. As a contemporary example, if Virgin America were to shut down I'm not sure there would be much interest in anyone acquiring their frequent flyer assets because they haven't built up a long period of loyalty and they use a different currency than that used by most other airlines.