Originally Posted by Hotel Kilo

Hey Trip. The 73N will be the junior plane at DAL. Especially on the "A" side. Network had always planned to supplant the 73 island flying from NYC once enough NEOs were onboarded. I think I posted about that some time ago. It's a better plane for our customers. Same goes for the transcons. As 75's retired out the NEO was slotting in and the push to get the D1 config approved was at warp speed. We couldn't get that done fast enough. You may see a slight uptick in some island flying from ATL. But the lions share of that flying will be NEO (especially from the NY base).

The 73 flying in NYC base will shift to probably more than 50% of the originators coming out of LGA for their bid pack. The 73 in NYC will be relegated to mostly domestic out of LGA, there will be some island tag ons if you happen to touch ATL, but the plan has always been to slide the transcons and island flying out of NYC to the NEO. The NYC 73 folks are going to start to see this now, if not already. If anyone flew the 88 out of NY base, the bid packs for the 73 there will be looking eerily familiar. That is why I'm saying that the 73n will be the junior plane at delta. It's going to start bouncing around the bergs and villes more and more. MAX won't really change that dynamic. The plan was to slot that jet into a few transcons (I don't believe the MAX is getting the D1 configuration like some of the NEOs are) but mostly due mid stage 3/4 cons (think JFK - SLC, ATL-SEA, ATL-PDX, ATL-SAN, ATL-SFO and stuff like that). MAX won't see any of the island flying direct from JFK. Maybe one or 2 places like is happening now, but again, as more NEOs are onboarded the lions share of that one leg island flying to and from is gone from the the 73 fleet probably for a long long time.

ATL 73 flying will be about the same as it was. Same for SLC, DTW and LAX. SEA will be interesting to see how network plays with that. I've seen some plans, and like I stated before, other than the Alaska stuff, the SEA bid pack for the 73 will be less than exciting. Again, as more NEOs come onboard the days of one leg overnight one leg back are pretty much going to be predominantly gone from the 73 bid packs.

Unless you can solidly hold a true WB "A", I'd bid the little Bus and camp out there. Unless you like banging out of LGA and hitting all those garden spots the 88 used to service.