Let me first be very clear, I do not believe there is any credibility to the rumor, however earnings are due to be released on thursday .

That said, I could get excited about a US/AS tie up, but under certain conditions:

• AS mgt and BOD is running the combined airline, in other words, this is AS buying out US.
• Doug Parker and his pals are immediately fired from US, and has no part in the combined airline.
• AS keeps the AVOD system that US has.
• AS keeps the US east coast presence, including the International traffic to South America and Europe.
• Under the combined AS airline, they ditch Star Alliance and remain the code share "whore" we've grown to love.

However, there are many reasons not to tie up here too, any one reason is probably more than enough reason to not even give a moment's thought to this.