Less better, indeed. This would be a way for a regional with cash to become a mega-regional without cash. So look around and identify the regional with the most cash to squander--the one most likely to want to become ridiculously large in sheer volume of capacity--and then bet on that regional to be a player in an acquisition.

The more likely scenario is a spin-off through an IPO, whereby AMR would simply receive a boatload of cash from the sale of stock, AE becomes its own public company entity, and other than that, nothing much changes.