First Time post here.... Having been on the sidelines for the last 4 years (furloughed) the most frustrating argument I have read (on several thread topics) has been when someone alludes to UAL's parking of the 737 fleet (20% of the fleet) and subsequent furloughs as having nothing to do with this merger.

I started at Continental Express in 1998 and commuted for 9 years on a lot of CAL jump seats. To say that the culture at UAL and CAL are different is a huge understatement.

The planning for and execution of the Merger that was announced in May 2010 had begun years prior. The earliest UAL/CAL merger discussions on record (WSJ) were in late 2006. The discussions did not get serious until the DAL/NWA discussions began. Consider the following sequence of events with regards to UAL furloughs:

1/15/2008 - Delta in simultaneous merger talks with NWA/UAL (USA Today)
2/15/2008 - UAL/CAL in advanced merger talks (NY Times)
4/14/2008 - DAL/NWA merger announced
4/26/2008 - CAL decides not to merger w/UAL
6/4/2008 - UAL to park 94 737's (Roughly 20% of the fleet)
6/19/2008 - CAL to join Star Alliance (Multiple sources)
8/19/2008 - CAL to furlough 137 pilots
7/16/2009 - Larry Kellner to step down (USA Today)
10/27/2009 - Last UAL 737 flight
5/3/2010 - UAL/CAL merger announced

Maybe I am naive, but I do not believe these events happened independent of each other. I feel there was a strategic plan in place long before May 2010.