I agree, (for now) the issue becomes if we get so cheap someone buys us for our parts. That was a real concern back when Doug was running things for a brief period as well.

Getting kicked from the S&P isn't the end of the world but it's not great. Many Americans invest in the S&P and it helps keep your stock price up just because everyone is buying it blindly.

United will surpass our fleet size sometime over the next year or two if their deliveries continue. Delta makes massively more profit than we do. The question should be asked, what does a 2030, 2040, 2050 AA look like? Is there room for three legacy network carriers in the US?

SWA does domestic better/cheaper than us, and DL and UA do international better than us. We just sort of exist right now. Kinda like UA in 2010-2016.