Mr. Maxon's blog could be construed to be copied almost in its entirety from the USA Today article which was published yesterday morning. Mr. Maxon blog has a time stamp of 5:31PM yesterday. He even "quotes" the same people that USA Today quoted. As far as other major mergers, they are done with and finished, that ship has sailed. What did nor did not happen with them has no bearing on this merger. I'm guessing the GAO may be getting pressure from Congressmen who saw fares go up to the beautiful city in the sticks where they live; so, whether or not connecting flight service was looked at in the other mergers, it's being looked at now.
Life ain't fair. There ain't no free lunch. And, nuthin is going to come in the mail.