I misinterpreted what was meant by "leveling up" and I don't know the language of these two contracts. The good deal for you guys if a merger is ever announced is that you both fly the same plane. Mixed fleet types add fences and all kinds of complexities that add time to negotiations.

In the CAL/UAL case it turns out that wasn't applicable. CAL was hiring and had a slightly higher paying contract while UAL had people on furlough. Once the merger was announced, CAL didn't want to hire off the street with UAL pilots on furlough but couldn't legally recall pilots on another list at that point. The two unions worked out an agreement where furloughed pilots could be "hired" by CAL, they started at the bottom of the list but weren't probationary pilots and were started out at their pay longevity at the time of their furlough. It was a voluntary program and when the SLI came out everyone moved to their appropriate slot. Not really relevant to this potential deal, but it's just an interesting piece of airline history.