United didn't "buy" CAL.

It was a marriage.

United was the man, which is why CAL was forced to take on his name. If CAL has been the man we'd be called Continental, but we're not. We're United.

CAL was the woman. Lots of things point to this.

1) CAL was "expecting". They were "expecting" to staple about 3,000 United pilots to the bottom of the list. They were also "expecting" to keep getting all of the upgrades for the near future, but unfortunately the man stepped in and stopped all that.

2) CAL was playing "hard to get". Like "hard to get" the dates their pilots actually started at mainline. And "hard to get" them to negotiate the contract in a timely manner without ridiculous self SLI helping elements.

3) CAL was bad at math. Like a 747 should pay the same as a 767 even though one weighs almost twice as much at takeoff as the other one. Or one payrate for one type of 757 and another one for a different type of 757.

4) CAL was unpredictable like a woman. Hiring pilots, then furloughing pilots, then hiring pilots again.

5) CAL was spending money it didn't have. CAL couldn't resist the shiny new airplanes, and decided to go out to the mall and buy a bunch of new planes and then figure out later how to pay for them all.

6) CAL asked "Does this hat make me look fat?" The man answered "No honey, it just makes all your other clothes look too small".

So its very clear that CAL wasn't bought by UAL. instead it was a marriage and like any good marriage the man is now wishing he'd have married that US Air chick instead.