Very sad indeed. Guys who had career expectations of being a captain on a 757 flying from Phoenix to Honolulu for the rest of their lives now got integrated in such a way that a senior cactus pilot (probably 45 years old) will be sitting left seat on a 330, overnighting in Rome while their FO is a 55 year old USair guy. Haha, the indecency! I'm sorry to be so glib, but do you really feel their lot was a tragedy?

I don't have a dog in the fight so theoretically and hopefully, I'm less biased. That being said, I don't really favor one side over the other, but the way I see it: USair was restructuring in bankruptcy and AmericaWest was staring down the gun of a likely bankruptcy pre-merger so its not like anybody magnanimously saved anybody else. The airlines saw the possibility of a symbiotic partnership, hoping their synergy would be enough to overcome the hard times. For the record I understand that a lot is at stake for both sides so this was bound to be a contentious issue, but as a west guy, deep down don't you guys feel like you got a pretty sweet deal with the proposed list intergration?