Possible... Like I said, nobody was privy to the executive conversations. However, that being said, Tilton was an exec hired to do two things. Steer a company through BK (he already had this on his resume) and promote industry (specifically UAL) consolidation. While casual talks between CAL and UAL may have occurred 8-10 years ago I think, and I think CAL guys would agree, that Bethune/Kellner were not fans merging with anyone. Likely, they pursued their strategy moving forward as a stand alone carrier until the DAL/NWA merger changed the industry dynamic. Kellner looked like he STILL didn't want to accept the fact of the industry bit the CAL BOD's did. It was commonly thought that the carrier without a partner would slowly die on the vine. Very reasonable as the corporate accounts were the majority revenue stream and DAL's new network would extremely hard to compete with.

At the end of the day, I don't believe Bethune and Kellner did any positioning of CAL for a future merger. I am not stating this as fact, of course, but merely trying to reasonably connect the dots as observed.
Had industry consolidation not started, I think Kellner was doing a great job steering the ship for CAL.