Where did 10 years go. First half of April 2010 UAL was reported to be in deep merger negotiations with USAir. Given all that was being reported along with the hush internally, that appeared to be what was going to happen. Smisek suddenly jumped in last minute and stopped it with the ugly girl thing. At the very least, I think UAL / USair and AA / CAL would have been worse for all of us.
Now back to the black hole in front of us.