UAL ALPA can ask for what they want and even put rates in the contract, but that doesn’t mean that we will see 175’s on our certificate. After the Tumi disaster Kirby has admitted that there won’t be any scope relief moving forward. The 900’s are a horrible product compared to the 175’s and they diminish the brand improvement that UAL is striving for, but they are currently staffed short term lift. I was shocked that UAL added the 900’s, however now I expect that they are just a temporary patch to provide short term lift while Mesa transitions crews over to the 175. As much as I’d love to see all flying done by mainline pilots, I just don’t see it happening. Now that Mesa will be exclusively UAX, United can still pump Aviate graduates into their new hire classes. I was wrong about parking a good product to make room for an inferior one, and I’d love to be wrong about this, but I think that it’s just cheaper for UAL to keep the carrot dangled in front of the regionals while they grow the mainline fleet to replace regional lift.

Good grief...are you for real?

Yea, everyone knows what the situation is with the parked 175's and the 900s. This is a small hiccup in the grand scheme of things until either Mesa, Republic or SkyWest can get those 175's back in the air. United cannot operate these on their own to make it worth their while. If they could, or any other major using 175's right now, the move would be in full force to get that ball rolling. The move by American to start throwing money at their WO carriers shows they have no interest in bringing them on to mainline. United, Delta and Alaska are in the same boat.

Get over this hyped up pipe dream that you have. Doesn't take long to see who on APC lives in a pilot bubble.....

Honest question, cause I just don't know: What is it about the 175s that makes them a better product that the 900s?

Is it just that the 175s are generally newer and less beat up / more reliable? Or is there something else?

All from a customer perspective.

Larger, more comfortable cabin
Windows are at a better height for pax to see out
Seating is more spacious due to scope seating restrictions
Larger overhead bins allowing people to board their baggage and very few green tag gate checks
They aren’t beat to hell both mechanically and cosmetically
The air conditioning almost always works. No smoking hot cabins
Better first class cabin

the simple summary: larger diameter hull.

that’s also how Embraer sold them. They took a 175 and filled the back with styrofoam to show the difference to the CRJ family.

it took Smizek 5 sec to decide which one is better

Hmmmmmm. If you read again please note who this information is from. I am retired and couldn’t care less about this other than to wish my former colleagues good fortune in their careers. If they have as much fun and financial good fortune as I have I will be very happy for them. Something you clearly do not believe in based on your response.

ok you know best
253 over 70 seats it’s 253 and will stay 253 let me assure you that
And let me assure you that they want over 400 over 70 seats to fly and feed the large expansion they plan and hiring for
BTW they asked for scope relief for up to 150 large RJs and got the big hell no
The only way is to bring them in-house or buy 220s or 195s in house in order to increase the 253 cap
94 percent voted NO few months ago if you can recall
and both alpa and management looking for a solution
What i said is on the table

Now carry on

It’s not that I don’t “believe in”, it’s I don’t believe your hearsay. You need to put that crack pipe down for a while, just because you’re retired doesn’t give you the right to be reckless you grumpy old geezer.

Leave him alone . After 20-30 years in this industry he has earned the right to retire and sit on his porch and smoke crack and be a grumpy old geezer . Actually, I’m jealous . That’s my plan when I retire . I wish I could do it now 😂😂😂

Beneficial in training pipeline. Beneficial in INSTANT lift especially since the Air Wisconsin lift is going away.