For selfish reasons (good prices from some ME origins) I do hope they still join, but to be honest I think this has the writing on the wall. I will be surprised if they actually follow through on this considering the direction the airline has taken over the past year. I nearly bought a couple of tickets on WY expecting they'd at least be joined up by Dec 31st but looks like it's not happening and glad I didn't. One of them would have been economy class (short flight) but I generally won't buy economy on a carrier I don't get alliance benefits on.