It is not just the seats, they have to pull the a/c out of service and that takes revenue away from the bottom line. If co has to accommodate passenger changes planes because of the out of service that takes revenue away as well. Also they would be creating a new product and essentially a sub-fleet of a/c, one with old and one with new BF. Also continental is still marketing BusinessFirst as their premier product. There is no point in paying for advertising a product, when that is not the product delivered.

Constancy and uniformity are powerful motivators, much more so than any gives credit to. How, many times have people complained on this forum not that service was bad but it was inconsistent, and not uniform. I would imagine that on some level it is psychologically comforting to walk into a place an know exactly what you are going to find.

Airlines run on repeat business travelers, I predict you roll out a new seat right now CO would lose business, not because either product is bad, but because they are different. It makes sense to roll out the new seat with the new plane because then you can pump up the change for the future aspect. Right now it just seems like a stop-gap measure. Hell, if aint broke don't fix it.