Originally Posted by CousinEddie (Post 1974440)

Remember Ratt? 'Round and 'Round.....

Sleeves I clearly remember a long layover in SFO in early April of 2010. I was out to dinner with two other crews, and we had all known each other for a long time. The topic of conversation that night was the news that had broken earlier in the day. The news was that UAL was in deep merger negotiations with USAirways. So much for any chance of a CAL merger being revived we figured. Obviously, Glen was serious about moving on. Given all of the previous work that had been done on a USair deal, we figured this was going to happen fast. Remember, this is already pushing two years since DAL/NWA.

That weekend, Glen was tending to his horses on his Santa Fe ranch when Jeff called. He begged him not to marry the "ugly girl." Tilton reversed course, and the rest was history.

Evidently, your management team was not comfortable with CAL and AAL being the last two legacy carriers standing alone. With major overlaps in NY, Latin / South America, and two large hubs close together in Texas, that seems understandable.

If you would have rather gone down that road, then just say so. I'm sure you would have been thrilled with APA.

Originally Posted by BMEP100 (Post 1975011)

LOL! you were in the room for that conversation with Glenn?

Funny, the insiders in the Wall Street Journal had a different take altogether on that US AIR deal.

IF there is any truth to your story, it is only because Smisek knew the CAL mgt would bail rather than do it and this was his only chance to sit in the big chair. Shows the kind of guy he is.

Larry Kellner told me personally he refused to do the deal because it was not a good deal and offered his resignation.

I saw him two years later and he said he was glad he left, but felt bad for the friends he left behind.

It's water under the bridge now anyway- some, like divorced wives can't let go. They are too fat and ugly to get picked up.

Originally Posted by BMEP100 (Post 1975011)

LOL! you were in the room for that conversation with Glenn?

Funny, the insiders in the Wall Street Journal had a different take altogether on that US AIR deal.

IF there is any truth to your story, it is only because Smisek knew the CAL mgt would bail rather than do it and this was his only chance to sit in the big chair. Shows the kind of guy he is.

Larry Kellner told me personally he refused to do the deal because it was not a good deal and offered his resignation.

I saw him two years later and he said he was glad he left, but felt bad for the friends he left behind.

It's water under the bridge now anyway- some, like divorced wives can't let go. They are too fat and ugly to get picked up.

Originally Posted by AllenAllert (Post 1975181)

If Kellmer actually told you that he was lying. More like he knew he couldn't manage a company the size of a United then adding CAL to it would have overwhelmed him. The only people that thought merging CAL into United were the money people of both airlines. Tilton was happy to let JS run the merged company because of CAL's rough-shot treatment of employees. Something Tilton was unable to accomplish at UAL.

Would you care to give reference to the Wall Street Journal insider article you referenced?

Originally Posted by BMEP100 (Post 1975011)

LOL! you were in the room for that conversation with Glenn?

Funny, the insiders in the Wall Street Journal had a different take altogether on that US AIR deal.

IF there is any truth to your story, it is only because Smisek knew the CAL mgt would bail rather than do it and this was his only chance to sit in the big chair. Shows the kind of guy he is.

Larry Kellner told me personally he refused to do the deal because it was not a good deal and offered his resignation.

I saw him two years later and he said he was glad he left, but felt bad for the friends he left behind.

It's water under the bridge now anyway- some, like divorced wives can't let go. They are too fat and ugly to get picked up.

Originally Posted by Scrappy (Post 1975184)

"Kellner" dude. If you're going to bag on him at least get it right.

And to caveat your bogus caveat...you have no idea what LK thought or didn't think.

Originally Posted by UALinIAH (Post 1975187)

Neither do you nor does it matter. "LK" as you call him was gone before the MAD.

CEOs come and go. Yet the United Airlines name lives on. CAL is as dead as PAA, EAL, TWA etc etc. Let's try to be "United". Wear your pin, PSIS on the SCABs, and work towards flying the contract and look to be a unified group as openers will be here before we know it.

Originally Posted by Scrappy (Post 1975184)

"Kellner" dude. If you're going to bag on him at least get it right.

And to caveat your bogus caveat...you have no idea what LK thought or didn't think.

Originally Posted by SpecialTracking (Post 1973779)

Are we really going down this road again?

Originally Posted by UALinIAH (Post 1972870)

Yes we had shrunk post 9/11. Went through a nasty BK and emerged more financially sound. Just like CAL did twice. What's your point? The author is making some true statements that the management team was in over their heads in dealing with a combined company more than twice the size that they'd ever operated and were not prepared to handle it.