Remember that in the bank bailout, the Treasury Secretary at the time, Paulson, who was an industry insider, worked to get banks on the same page and lobbied Congress for the money. In the auto bailout, the CEOs flew to Washington and testified together in front of Congress (leading to the infamous carpooling story). In the current political environment who is going to advocate for American? I don't see any other airline CEO teaming up with Parker to sell Congress on a bailout. More likely CEOs such as Bastian, Kelly, and Christie will making calls behind the scenes advocating against an American bailout claiming that the best thing to right the industry would be a reduction in supply. I just don't see politicians getting behind a bailout of one airline, and there won't be an industry wide bailout in the time frame American requires.

Betting American's future on a bailout would be quite risky.