Nothing more to it that I could see. Winds were howling. Got called off reserve to fly Kona and when I arrived the gate agent was having a major freakout because he had to kick 40 revenue pax off a full flight. Get down to the jet and under dispatcher remarks it says something to the effect of “Must fly cost index zero due to max tanks.” Took every ounce of fuel the jet could take and still had a razor thin margin over min gas. Ending up blocking 7:11.

Not trying to start another 75 v NEO fight just pointing out that when someone says it handles SEA -Hawaii just fine in peak winds that isn’t true. The NEO is great and does Hawaii just fine most of the time even in winter, but sometimes the winds are crazy and it’s just a fact that the 757 has more range.

Also it wasn’t just me. It happened all week as the winds were bad. The next day they fuel stopped in SFO and they also started buying people off later in the week. I know because my FO was taking his family to Kona a few days later and they called him during our trip offering him money to connect through LAX instead.

Don’t take my word for it though, Delta has the data and their official word on why they sent it back to the 757 was winter winds. Considering half the 320 base is on reserve growing beards for two months, I doubt they did that on a whim.

This was post fuel planning issue, but I agree they probably didn’t save a dime. Closing the ER base and then immediately adding a ton of ER flying to said base is some 3D chess. Kind of like paying millions on cabin renewals only to turn around and sell the jets