Originally Posted by
Kacee
That was my reaction to this comment as well. AA management definitely should not get the benefit of the doubt on fleet or route planning decisions. Their list of bungles is really quite extraordinary.
The continued rollout of aircraft with minimal MCE is just baffling. This is a huge differentiator for UA, which becomes ever more important as upgrades decline and road warriors increasingly must settle for sitting in back. I assume this dates all the way back to AA's failed experiment with MRTC 20+ years ago. Seems they learned the wrong lesson there.
Fully agreed, it seems like they are treating MCE as "only where there would be extra legroom anyway" on their long haul planes and that feels like a mistake. Only thing I can think is that execs felt it was cannibalizing premium economy. Yes, a lot of the seats are assigned for free by elites, but that is literally a huge reason I spend additional money every year to maintain status - upgrades are fairly nonexistent, but at least I can get 3 extra inches of legroom on almost every flight.
I hope at some point they remove 3 seats on one side, convert 24 seats to MCE, and call it a day.