Originally Posted by
NickB
Both US and AC are relatively minor players in *A. The central Axis is LH-UA. I can't see US or AC having sufficient weight to force a merged CO/UA out of *A against their will. Nor would there be much likelihood of DL/NW+ CO/UA belonging both to the same alliance without the competition authorities making much noise against it.
I am not in disagreement with that, but I was just noting that things aren't as straightforward as they seem. AC and US may demand concessions from Uninental (e.g. less focus on EWR as a hub), which may in turn mean that either the significance of the loss to ST is minimised or that they (AC and/or US) decide to leave *A and go it alone, look for another alliance or even start their own (they could get Olympic and Cubana to join in and teach US a thing or two about service
)!
My whole point is that taking speculation that far is totally pointless, as you cannot build any sort of picture of reality based on assumption upon assumption.