Originally Posted by
IAH-OIL-TRASH
I think this is more likely than a Polarization of the HDs. Still, I think UA will end up leaving them as they are until they are retired. If they go to recliners, they'd pretty much have to restrict them to the West Coast / Hawaii market and probably put Polaris a/c between Hawaii and ORD/DEN/IAH. I could also see 777 recliners on daytime flights between Las Vegas and ORD/EWR, BOS/IAD-West Coast, etc.
I think ORD/Hawaii is generally scheduled with 787 only. The HD 772's mainly do IAH/DEN/West coast - Hawaii, plus a few blighted p.t.s timings, and then other hodgepodge of CONUS hub-hub flights.
So converting to recliner (blech to that idea) would only "disqualify" them from a moderate subset of the routes they get put on: the IAH/DEN-HI and p.t.s ones.