The seniority list, as well as probably a joint CBA and a million other details would need to be worked out and agreed to in advance of any combination. To do anything else would result in nothing more than the AW/US mess on a much larger scale. I think the labor issues make this deal impossible.
In the end I think AMR management will get enough of what it wants to reorganize as a stand-alone carrier. If you look at the WSJ today you can see that they are already subtly threatening the employees with a breakup-yard sale if they don't get what they want quickly. It's hard to say how realistic the threat is but the AMR employees have nowhere else to go if the company liquidates, concessionary agreements pay much better than unemployment does. I think the employees will give what they have to give to keep AMR independent and hope for the best, they don't have any other realistic options.
Nobody can swallow American whole in this economy with these fuel prices and antitrust issues as well. I think they go it alone with fragmentation as another possible (but doubtful) option. TPG could be the wild-card here, this is going to be a long process.
