How sad is it that we're groveling for more flying with another airline that's managed probably just as badly as DL is. The only saving grace in the UA deal would be that maybe we would be ground-handled by Comair stations where they exist, and even that might not be guaranteed.

Another round of furloughs is not only plausible but I'd say very likely. Even if Freedom went the way of the dodo, who's to say Delta would replace that regional feed. All this as we watch the NW wholly-owneds (soon to be DCI carriers) growing like mad. It's easy to grant unawarded flying to carriers when they're not "Delta" yet (read: Mesaba and Compass).