Keith Alexander speculates on what would happen to frequent flyers in an America West-USAirways tie-up.

He quotes Randy Petersen saying that USAirways members could finally relax about the future and stability of their miles.

Separately, if the combined corporate entity remains as USAirways, and its existing partnerships continue, then America West flyers will gain access to international awards like they’ve never known before through USAirways’ membership in the Star Alliance. Currently, America West’s premium international redemption options are hugely limited.

Of course, this is all speculation. If a merger were to go through, and if it were to cause the combined entity to exit the Star Alliance (after all, America West is a significant competitor to United on the West Coast of the U.S. and to the best of my knowledge America West management hasn’t commented on its position vis-a-vis Star) then USAirways frequent flyers would have their redemption options slashed dramatically.

This is all speculation — on both sides, of course — but it’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out.