I ran into a United cust. service agent moments ago. I used to see him every week on my return leg home on United. But I've switched over to Continental so I haven't seen him in months. I mentioned my recent 'defection', and he shared with me a juicy 'rumour.' The United pilots have been talking about a merger between Continental and United. His wife works for a competing carrier and with some degree of conviction, when pilots gossip about this stuff, it usually turns out true. United/Continental makes a lot of sense. Incompatible fleets, but at the size of the airlines, they are both well into the critical mass of efficiencies. Extremely complimentary route structures with hubs in SFO/LAX/IAH/ORD/IAD/EWR. CO's moved into Latin America, United's into Asia. I'm guessing that CO would probably side with Star Alliance as CO's other US partners in SkyTeam are both in bankruptcy court. Hrmmm.. Matthew