I have nothing of value to add to this thread beyond stating that I enjoy flying Y in MD-80s and find them comfortable (in relative terms of course).

Yikes! Remember, we are on the intarwebz... always let prejudice get in the way of facts and reality!

The MD-family is my favorite type of narrow body plane.
In my case, it's mostly attributed to the 3-2 seating, and the wider seats (compared to Boeing products).

I try to avoid MD-80s due to their inherent design flaw with the jack screw. That being said, increased inspection and maintenance procedures has resulted in no major issues since 2000. For the OP's concern MD-80s are essentially the same size as the 737s. In terms of stability in turbulence, noise, ext, there are no reasons for choosing one over the other.

The jack screw failure on AS261 was (A) a result of faulty maintenance procedures and (B) a one-time event. You might as well avoid all 737s because of their never-explained uncontrolled rudder incidents, associated with multiple fatal crashes (UA585, US427, etc.).

Yes I remember my first ride on DC9. I was in seat A of the last row on a Reno Air flight back in the 90s. Loud as hell.

And (C) "Also contributing to the accident was the absence on the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 of a fail-safe mechanism to prevent the catastrophic effects of total acme nut thread loss." (source:https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/...y/AAR0201.html)

The lack of a fail-safe on a primary control system is an inherent design flaw that was determined to be too expensive to fix/redesign. As I also mentioned, new maintenance and inspections have prevented other incidents.

As for the 737 rudders, I believe the system was redesigned and all planes in use have been retrofitted since 2008. In addition, Boeing installed a limiter on the rudder in the event of preventing a catastrophic event in the case of ANY rudder incident. THIS is failsafe and that is that is what they are for.

Deleted, previous poster put in much better.

You must not be very experienced. At cruise speed, I find the MD-80 in first class to be about the noisiest jet airliner around.

Sure, it's quiet on the takeoff roll but once you're above 10,000 ft and 250 KIAS that slipstream noise becomes loud, loud, LOUD.

Noise notwithstanding, on that I agree. In coach, I would much rather be on an MD-80 than 737. 2-3 in slightly wider seats beats 3-3 every time.

And intriguingly buggy logic in some 737NG systems like the logic that has the autothrottles retard thrust when one of the radio altimeters indicates at or below 0 AGL.

That was one of the contributing factors in the THY crash short of the runway at AMS/EHAM. Failed RA causes negative AGL indication, thrust levers brought back to idle by the autothrottles, clueless pilots fly on for over a minute not realizing they were at idle and getting progressively lower than the glideslope, airplane lands in field way short of runway.

An AA 738 shooting an approach into MIA had an almost identical scenario within +/- a couple weeks of the THY accident at AMS. The good news is that the pilots flying that airplane immediately recognized the uncommanded rollback, disconnected the autopilot, advanced the throttles and hand flew a go around and subsequent completely normal, uneventful landing.

the last few rows of an md80 are so noisy, i wonder why osha does not shut them down.

If flying an AA MD-80, you have a 50% chance of delayed at the gate due to maintenance items "pending sign off"

PSA's M80s had a "family" section (iirc just forward of the overwing exits) with an aft-facing row of seats ... takeoff was really interesting from those seats because a lightly-loaded MadDog climbs like a rocket

Above is wild exaggeration.

I fly on tons of AA MD-80s as well as plenty of other types operated by AA, DL, MQ, OO... I also track all my flights.

There is no airline/equipment type in my experience that jumps out as having a disproportionate number of delays.

I've had mechanical delays on AA MD-80s... at about the same rate as I have had mechanical delays on other types and other airlines.

I spend many, many hours on AA Mad Dogs, and while I have experienced all kinds of delays (oh hello, terrible weather in Dallas!), maintenance sign-off is not a bigger issue on the MD80 than anywhere else.

What airline flies MD-80s that actually has meal service on those flights?

In any case, on those rare flights I should think you'd be glad to not have any Dutch rolls. My stomach would vastly prefer a Danish or a Croissant instead.