I've heard from several guys at Expressjet that they have been told they are not going to get any new aircraft for the forseeable future. Skywest has ordered a bunch of E170s and they are all going to Skywest (unfortunately).

United could put these aircraft anywhere. Would be nice if they ended up at mainline where they belong. But with the short lead time and stated desire to use them to get rid of 50 seaters it points to someplace with 170s flying already and flying 50 seaters for UAL.

There have been rumors of something bigger in the works at TSA for a while, on top of the 7 new jets we are flying for United. Since January there have been changes that could be indicative of a merger with Compass down the road and there is a lot of activity at HQ. Or they could just be much needed changes to make TSA run more effectively. Whatever is going on, they have put off work on everything (including a much needed ORD base). Plus there are persistent rumors of more United aircraft on top of the 7 we already picked up this year. The only ones out there are the 170s. Could be they are mistaken and we are talking about a new codeshare too, you never know.

Could be something, could be bullcrap. Who knows. Hopefully UAL will announce what is going on with these airplanes soon. You can make a case for them to end up anywhere.