Agreed. In the DL/NW merger everyone knew MEM would be shut down shortly after...but they didnt come out and say it to the world. A segment of the NW customer base was harmed, in that they lost airline service. Now of course if you ask DL in hindsight they can claim market conditions, economics, yada yada as the reasons it was closed. But again, we all knew beforehand.

With JB/NK we have JB coming out and saying right off the bat that we wont be able to serve a segment of the NK customer base. So "this one's for you" was born. If JB had played it cooler (and the NK CEO shut his freaking mouth) then maybe the public perception could have been that JB is going to adopt the best practices from the NK business model and integrate into JB, adding more ultra low fare seats and expanding service in overlapping markets. Or something to that effect. Then 2 yrs after the merger closes they cancel all that nonsense stating "market conditions have changed."