If UA is allowed to reclassify 50-seater weight from 65,000 to 69,000 or 71,000, and have them in unlimited numbers, UA Express / CRJ-550 / Gojet will be grown to take a much larger share of domestic departures of mainline UA (I'm taking bets). Every parked -700 and -900 converted to -550, fleet of hundreds, and repowered with unducted fan/turbofan engines.
Given this "minor weight increase", it'll be the perfect airplane: 10 first class seats, 2.5 hours with alternate fuel. As is, it can't go more than 1.3 hours with an alternate, and can't carry a full load on short flights with alternate fuel due to landing weight restriction.
With recent FAA passenger weight increases, the CRJ-550 is barely usable. Gojet is frequently bumping 5-7 passengers, frequently flying with "totally safe" fuel reserves.
With a "minor" giveaway in the UA scope language, CRJ-550 got a bright future that will take mainline flying away for the next decade.
UA have experimented with hourly or semi-hourly departures all day between some higher end markets, EWR-DCA, EWR-ACK etc, and would love to offer it everywhere.
If ALPA gives away scope on the CRJ-550, I'll lose all hope for restoring wages at mainline. The future will belong to Gojet.
The FAA increased the passenger weight about 10-20 lbs per passenger. That's 500-1000 lbs across 50 passengers. United is asking 4,000 lbs increase in scope language, and ALPA isn't even concerned?!? The extra 3000 lbs is another hour of range for the CRJ-550, and makes a huge difference in the usability of the regional aircraft. It's not about getting a non-rev jump seater onboard, it's about covering DEN-YUL, IAD-DEN, JAX-EWR and similar longer distances with a superior express product ten times a day.
Should at most counter-offer to only increase the scope as much as the FAA increased the passenger weight limits. Can't fault UA/Gojet for people being heavier when weighed. But increasing the scope any more than the passenger weight increase is giving away the future of mainline domestic flying. The extra 3000 (1 hour fuel burn) have HUGE implications for the viability of the regional product.