From the black helicopter:

I ask Gary Kelly if SWA paid anything to enter the bid process or a fee for not winning the bid, he said, " not a dime. In fact Republic came to us and asked us to enter the bid process and it ended up costing them another 25 million."

Gary said this about 2 months ago at the MDW pilot lounge with about 20 other pilots in attendance.

Two questions to ask if I was working under rev BB. 1. Why invite SWA to bid on F9 if you are the only bidder at the time?
2. If you truly wanted SWA to put a bid in why not give an extension to the deadline instead of raising your bid?