Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
The 77W was the 744 replacement on many routes, and given the poor aisle access of the 747 (and the fuel economy issue), it was likely the priority to replace. The poor aisle access of the sUA 772 was likely the driver to get it retrofit earlier in the program.
The 77W is the capacity and range match for the 744, so for many reasons most of the 77W routes are former 744 routes.
yes, but the 3-class 763, was 3-class, making it a target for earlier replacement
Those are also the next oldest seats since the 3-class 763's got lie flat seats a couple of years before the 772's.
No, those both are 2-1-2, so 3 aisle access seats per 5 seat row, only 60% aisle access -- make them inferior as far as % aisle access to the 78X
Brain fart on my part. Of course. No idea what I was thinking. 2-1-2 is a weird configuration, isn't it. Would have been better to make them 2-2-1!
Note I am not saying the 78X is going to be most competitive seat going forward in a 2-class world but rather it is the less uncompetitive of the present fleet (except maybe the sCO 772) and therefore that will likely lead them to be the last aircraft changed.
I think it's the bean counters that rule, not the relative competiveness. The seats are new and not amortized, so it would require a financial write-off to replace them. That's what UA has shown in the past, that they don't replace stuff until it has been amortized. That is why it is disappointing that they have continued to take new deliveries of a non-competitive seat when the new one is available. Even if it would have taken effort to install it. The 787 is a good aircraft, it has a nice lav ratio, nice windows, etc. Sad that it will be saddled with these seats for perhaps 10 years.
As far as getting out of a contracts, it depends, yes you can buy yourself out of a contract, it is only a matter $$$ (but how many). Given there are aircraft needing replacement first and without knowing what the buy-out price is, that may not be a financial attractive option.
It depends a lot on whether you are buying other product from the same supplier. How is AA getting out of their A350 contracts? They aren't buying the A330neo nor the A350 (nor the A380). Must be A321's that were the leverage, I guess. Or else they are paying penalties. I'm sure UA could have found a way, if they wanted to.