Inadvertantly, you've just proven the point. If you live in almost any city (large or small) in the Northeast and need to get to most anyplace in the southeast or mid-atlantic, US is really your only real option. Sure, you could take CO to EWR, but their choices to anywhere in the mid-atl are exceptionally weak. Forget AA, they don't do mid-atl or SE. DL could be an option, but with much longer leg times since connections run via CVG or ATL. UA via IAD, maybe, but again, far fewer choices. What's left? NW? Forget it -- they don't do any of this stuff.

So, to be exceedingly clear - yes, it is completely possible to avoid US 96% of the time, but with significant time and inconvenience costs that only a mileage runner would be willing to accept. Those of us working 60 hour weeks and travelling 2 or 3 days a week absolutely cannot justify nor consider options that add hours to a travel day. I think this is one core reason so many of the old timers in the northeast are ticked off. US, for so many of us, remains the core option still due to schedule and frequency reasons. Barriers to entry in airports like LGA, DCA, BOS, etc, are enormous, so the options haven't changed in the past decade.

Admittedly, that may not make much sense to our fellow travellers based elsewhere -- they have a much wider range of options. I've long said if I were a former HP passenger living in PHX, I would have no understanding of why all the crybabies out east keep griping about the new US.