that guy was a line holding captain on the 747 when this kid wasn't even riding a tricycle. I think there is something to be said about realistic career expectations. And I don't buy the argument that east would have closed the doors and these guys would have no job w/o the merger. LCC had 90 days cash and AWA had 30 days cash when they collided.
You are parroting bad information. At a Check Airmans meeting the summer of 05 either Bular or Crellin made some statement to the effect of only having 5 days left to go when the merger was announced. What you may be referring to is that only after Parker agreed to take this on. Money became available to get AAA out of BK and at that time (after exiting) AAA had 90 days of cash. Without the merger this would not have been the case. Think about it, if AAA could have attracted all that financing etc. Why would they bother with AWA at all.
If you have access to the ALPA national web boards you will see postings with info for the AAA guys on how to apply for UNEMPLOYMENT in their respective states.
Clearly they had their eyes on attrition!!!