UAL domestic 757's do not have an HMG. That was added with the ETOPS kits from Boeing. Yes, it can be retrofitted.

As I said, it just costs money and you can have almost anything you want. Again, it comes down to how much do you want to spend, vs a new 737?

My personal opinion after several thousand hours in both types, the 757 has excellent performance and is ideally suited to island flying as well as transcons. That is the market it was designed for.

The 737 on the other hand, even the new ones, are just one band aid on top of another from the orginal design. Yes, it has the range, barely. Yes it can get off the ground in Hawaii, but not with both fuel and people.

The 757 has much more flexibility operationaly than the guppie, but some consider that excess performance that we don't need to pay for. It's all up to the bean counters....I'd rather put the money into the 757's, upgrade to winglets, computers, interiors, and WiFi. Polish 'em up and you have a new plane that no one is currently building....If I were king...but no one asked me.

However, keep in mind, FedEx is buying every 757 it can find, for a reason.