I was just about to takeoff when we got the official news of the merger. I just completed 4 transcon segments and sat up front in all 4 as a SP (that won't happen again on the new AA). A lot of FC was talking about the merger and it seemed that the following came up (I have to say, it was unusual to have mult rows all talking about it together):
1) People in PHX and CLT are concerned about losing their hubs
2) Lower-level elites (SP/GP) may not get upgrades anymore and the system for getting them well likely change
3) Even CPs and Plats were concerned with the huge influx of all the AA higher tier elites, there will be a lot more segments sitting in the back
We on FT are all concerned about switch for *A to OW... surprisingly didn't come up much on any of my 4 flights.
Seems most concerning thing from all tier levels is that upgrades may be a thing of the past, esp for SP/GP.