of course they weren't going to say that and rock the boat uneccesarily with their first announcement. Alaska and Hawaiian have very loyal bases in their respective fortresses. Don't plop that frog in boiling water....put it in some lukewarm water so it doesn't realize it's being boiled. The time will come to announce "consolidation."

But make no mistake, the whole idea of a merger is to create effeciency and "synergize" the operation.

Put another way: If they planned to keep everything the same...separate airlines, separate employee groups, a bunch of airplane types....why merge at all?