Don't count SQ among the strong partners, Koala. They are a big boost to the alliance's quality image (particularly to combat the one-two punch of CX and BA in OW), but in terms of weight that they can throw around, I put them in the middle of the pack.

The real powers in * are UA and LH. They have the money, the network, and the resources. The newly merged AC is in the ballpark, but like most things Canadian is heavily eclipsed by its bigger US neighbour.

That being said, if they can't come up with a concensus (and SQ is a big impediment to concensus), then I doubt they will do it at all.