While they were utterly hopeless between ORD and SDF (though I forgave them much since they flew roomy BAE-146s), I always found Air Whisky to be a nice carrier - not quite to the level of Skywest, but a BAE-146 will earn you more brownie points then a CRJ-200.

Still, with AWAC looking to link up with US, it makes sense for UA to choose SkyWest (which has served UA well) and to try and get that $90 million back they gave AWAC in bonuses (which AWAC gave to US for an equity stake).