Originally Posted by
jsloan
Sure, that seems perfectly sensible. There's no way that the FAA would take issue with that.
There is no reason for subterfuge. (a) Nobody will care; (b) if anybody does care, drop the price by $5 and they suddenly won't care anymore; and, (c) the MAX is going to be the most scrutinized aircraft in history.
The FAA does not govern ICAO aircraft type codes - Boeing can designate their own aircraft type codes, and along with the airlines who have a vested interest in burying the MAX name, and could do the same here to hide the MAX's identity. For example, UA calls the 737-700 a 73G, they could call a MAX9 a 73B and no one would ever know - in fact, they could reprint the safety cards to show 73B and no one will realize they are on a MAX until a savvy customer figures it out and posts a blog that gets picked up by the media.