Just curious, what furlough numbers would have made it "fair and equitable?" The other way around... 80% AA furloughed and 16% TWA? 50-50? Me, I don't know. But what I do know is that, when a large profitable (at the time) airline buys the assets of a much smaller airline close to the brink, it goes without saying that the employees of the larger, acquiring airline that were already on the property will enjoy much better job stability than those from the other smaller airline that is being acquired. Unfair to the smaller airline, definitely. But you can rest assured it will happen again.... even with the new mandate of "neutral arbitration." We've already seen it with AWA/US. It's just the old axiom, "He who has the most gold makes the rules."

I suspect the thing that ticks most of you TWA folks off is the fact that the acquisition came with that golden promise from Don Carty and AMR - NOT APA - about "fair and equitable." To that extent, I completely understand your frustration and agree 100% that it led you folks down the wrong path.

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