You forgot about the love field slot !
I was wondering if it's possible that the Asian carrier that was interested might be a player in this as well !!?! To fill in the pieces you speak of ..
Wasn't BT, JH and some other players in China within the last month or so meeting with a Chinese carrier?
Here's another option;
Why would AS give or lease those scare-buses to JB? So JB could use them against AS, like Allegiant did with the MD-80's. What about Boeing taking those buses in a deal with AS to buy or lease 10-15 767ER's?? Those 767's would be used to fly international out of SEA, SFO, LAX and JFK. Boeing is having a fire-side sale on 767's, they are trying to keep the line going.
AS would be able to start feeding its own international flights to Asia and Europe. That combined with the code share agreements with other foreign carriers makes for interesting fodder huh?!?!