Could American Be Adding Even More Seats To Their 737 MAX Aircraft?

I miss Virgin America already. Seriously hope Jetblue and Alaska keep up the pressure to deliver a good product. At this point, giving them business is the only way to prove that quality standards and comfort still matter to customers as much as price.

Take a look at the configuration of a Sun Country 737-800 and you can see how easily this is accomplished.

The FCQ may be flying Southwest soon.

You won't be seeing me on one of their planes. And you wonder why the airlines can't figure out why their is so much air rage. Goes back to the days when I remember reading about an experiment with mice in which they began trying to kill each other when they were put into an overcrowded cage

Meh.

As long as it has MCE I don't care about reduced F seat counts.

And I'm happy that they are doing away with seatback IFE. So sick of people poking the back of my seat trying to get the touchscreen to do what the want.

120K ish miles per year...all purchased in lowest Y.

If this is true, thing of all the complaints that will be coming in the future? Award redemption is already difficult as is. Eliminate one row, sell first at a relatively reasonable price (which it is), and it's slim pickings.

EXPs, your complimentary upgrades are coming to an end.

What are the rules on the passenger to flight attendant ratio? Doesn't an airline have to add more people to the crew at some point, which would discourage this kind of cramming?

Igor: 1 FA per 50 pax. It's why JetBlue traditionally kept their A320s configured for 150 pax.

I'm with DC-PHLly -- I want good service and a good product, so B6 will be my first choice, as it always has been. Unfortunately B6 has been acting more and more like the legacy carriers.

@igor - Rules are 1 FA for every 50 pax, so such a change would not shift the need for 4 cabin crew.

I'm not sure who is worse--AA or United. They are both bottom of the barrel bad

So it's being reported elsewhere with what seems to be actual facts rather the random speculation.

F will stay at 16 seats. MCE will stay as is. Pitch in regular E reduced to 30 inches, with 3 rows being reduced to 29 inches. Sucks if you get those rows. Smaller lavs.

United likely doing something similar.

Again - I say Meh. This is the trend, and will be the trend, until people stop flying F9, B6 and the like. Jetblue and Alaska are nice little carriers, but their route networks are pretty limited.

Edit - didn't mean to put B6 next to F9 in post above. Meant NK there. Don't type while jetlagged.

And AA thinks their stock prices are going down due to credit card revenue missed targets....

On many routes AA doesn't have enough F seats for paid F. DCA-LAX for example is always sold out weeks in advance. I have seen LAX-HNL sold out in F several months in advance - even times when there are more F seats sold than coach seats.

Unless AA is going to raise F prices to what they once were, at current F prices they need more F seats.

pmUS is already a preview of tighter seat pitch. The pmUS has 1 more row of coach on a A321 from front door to next exit.

AlexS I read a few years back that Wall Street has been pushing JetBlue to act like legacy and low cost carriers. Despite their successful model that works, Wall Street feels since they provided money to JetBlue they get to say how JetBlue should run, which is actually true, but still why mess with a good model?

The article is a bit vague. Why not wait a few minutes until you could write the actual facts (see Bob's post above), which are available on multiple sources all over the web.

Seat pitch (Economy) 31 => 30; 31 => 29 (front 3 rows)

So the MAX in 737 means #seats; for legroom it's better to call it 737 MIN.

Anyone who is a CO-UA Flyer knows the hell that flying the Smisek era 737-900 is...AA is just falling in line with that with their MAX purchase...AA will learn the same lesson UA has, it's not a 757 no matter how much Boeing changes the numbers on it, or adds fancy advertising names, lighting, or engine cowlings...To be on any 737 above the 800 series is torture...

So right now I am sitting on a sparkling-new bus in the tiny Baltic country of Estonia. There are touchscreen tablets loaded with entertainment options at every seat. USA airline travel is looking more third-world every day.