I for one don't subscribe to the lame theory that CAL wouldn't have been able to make it on it's own. Alaska is doing pretty well. Hawaiian is doing pretty well. CAL was growing organically. The only real competition at the time was DAL/NWA.

USAirways was pretty dysfunctional as was American.

United was on the verge of collapse. It may offend some out there, but I don't believe United would have made it another year or two if it were not for the merger with CAL. They brought nothing to the table that couldn't have been bought for pennies on the dollar during the United liquidation, and could have helped us avoid most of the downside that came with merging with a decrepit dysfunctional airline.

There was a lot of opportunity for a scrappy well run airline like CAL to grow organically!