Originally Posted by
readywhenyouare
It is silly to expect a good deal on new aircraft. It's just like any new product. When 4K televisions first debuted they were quite expensive. Now that the technology has matured the prices have come down considerably. If you want the latest and greatest then you will have to pay for it. Ed is talking about wanting cheap prices. Sorry, that's just not in the picture.
Being a launch customer can result in cheaper pricing - but it makes operations harder (first year reliability for brand new airframes is comparatively low, and there is a greater risk of complete fleet groundings - e.g., 787 battery issues).