chinooker
I'm not sure what the Star alliance has to do with this subject...it was not in the original post, just yours. (i even checked with "FIND" function...correct me if I'm wrong)
having said that, having seen how BA and USAIR failed to gel many moon ago, I can see why you might not thing USAIR will make it.
But, there is something unique about surviving industry shake outs that USAIR has. It has scared pilots who were most adversely effected by 911(economically)...with the closure for KDCA. Its pay scale is on the low end and there is a hunger to survive that United just might not have.
AS to American and BA...well we have seen that in the works for many years and it isn't a solution, just a new set of problems.
We shall see.