Originally Posted by
BoeingBoy
Well, obviously switching alliances without a merger first can be done. It happens all over the world, and most recently with CO here at home. Of course, the new alliance must accept you or you're in alliance limbo.
Jim
CO's move to *A after rejecting UA's original merger offer seemed to work out pretty well for all parties (at least until the recent merger!), so I'm not sure why it wouldn't make sense for US to move to 1W whether or not the merger goes through right now.
Parker has already burned his bridges with UA to a large extent, who will trust him as a partner even less than before. AA/1W should welcome the added routes to fill in some big network gaps and, if they have doubts about the guy's intentions, will be less threatened by Parker as a minority partner than as head of the world's largest airline.
Out of curiosity, where was Parker the last time US & AA were allied?