Originally Posted by wdchuck1

No one has explained this because as you mention, the thought of this is insane.

The other thing that no one has mentioned are the alliances - There is no way conceivable that Star will accept the US/AA combination and US's cost to get out of Star would be significant and messy.

Bottom line in my opinion is that they are going to bootstrap their way out of this maybe with the help of a financial partner or dissolve.. I think that it can go either way..