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Comment by SimplyUnknown | Hacker News Reader

I'm totally with you, but how do you prevent it? Usually you only know what type of plane you fly with after buying tickets. A solution might be to only buy tickets from operators that don't have with 737 MAX planes but this group might be getting smaller over long time.

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Nearly all routes are flown with a specific type of plane always. Just use FlightRadar24 to see for that specific flight what usually does that route.

Thats only a 90% guarantee, since plane types are reshuffled during disruption sometimes.

I pick airlines that have (almost) no Boeings and that I can call before booking to see if it's an Airbus. I have done that for many years before the 737 Max issues. I simply find them annoying (very noisy) to fly with, but I definitely try to avoid. Some times I find myself in a Boeing on short flights when suddenly another airline provides the plane and it may be bad luck or damaged hearing or whatever; every flight I get into (and I fly a lot) with a Boeing, the noise is horrible.

my experience with A350 vs 787 (both Qatar) is that the A350's are some of quietest planes I've flown.

Must be me for sure; Qatar as well; did not sleep at all as there was a high pitch whining the stewardess said ‘you get used to’; nothing at all in the 350 or 380.

Got bumped from a A350 to a 777 for an upcoming long haul when Cathay Pacfic changed their schedules due to COVID-19. Blegh.

The 777 is the safest of them all, isn’t it?

Have you tried noise cancelling headphones? They make a huge difference to comfort on noisy flights.

I have yes and they work, however, when I fall asleep, I end up laying on them and they kind of break...

Shortly after the crash of Air France 447 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447#Sidestic...) many people wouldn't fly on an Airbus plane due to perceived fly-by-wire/software issues. Boeing and Airbus are the duopoly of commercial aviation and each has had issues over the years. However, commercial aviation as a whole is an incredibly safe way to travel long distances.

This is an example of where “vote with your dollar” and “invisible hand of the market” falls down, and why we need strong regulations.

Airliners are very much regulated already. If you want to set a personal standard above and beyond the regulation, there might not be a market for you. Supposing it could be worked out, do you plan to review the safety record of all your potential rides, or just go by headlines?

The issue many people will have on hn is that the design flaws (not just software issues) have been discussed at length along with mismanagement that has shown little to no regard for design flaws. This has eroded trust in Boeings ability to make a new plane.

Time without incidents will be needed to earn many of our trusts back.

You talk of the regulation but posts on HN have shown how the regulators have failed and even why it's happened.

How do you know Airbus' software is better than Boeing? Maybe Boeing is overall better, but bad luck caught them? Maybe Boeing has learned a lesson and while their past software was bad they have spend the last year making significant changes and all future airplanes will be much better?

You are getting downvoted, but your points are fair. It wasn't that long ago that people criticized Airbus for some surprisingly similar reasons.

Sure we can imagine a scenario where Boeing is still the best choice. But if we actually want to make the best decision possible with the information available at this point in time add probabilities to your cases.

Who is more likely to have quality control issues? The company that has had more planes crash or the company that has had fewer planes crash?

They clearly aren't regulated sufficiently. The lack of FAA oversight is what allowed the whole 737 Max fiasco to happen in the first place.

Regulation can't help when management is willing to sacrifice safety for profits. Ultimately, the penalties for violating those regulations and loss of customers could kill Boeing, but lives have already been lost.

Except that didn’t happen with the Max. The engineers thought MCAS was safe. Nobody in management told the engineers to design MCAS do be dependent on a single sensor with no sanity check and nearly physically impossible to override.

I think the "vote with your dollar" is already working. How many 737 MAX contracts have been cancelled?

Cancelled because the planes aren’t available.

Meanwhile companies like IaG are buying more 737-Max, knowing full well their customers will base their purchase on the cheapest hit on skyscanner.

when you buy a ticket from the airline, it shows you what kind of plane it is.

Look it up on kayak or the airline's website if booking directly. The info is available before booking.

Assuming it's a major route, there are probably carriers with Boeing-less fleets on it.

Assuming Airlines are/will be racing to operate/purchase 737 MAX?

Or larger.

Sure, but you never know which way it will go but this is assuming the 737 MAX gets recertified by the FAA and operators are going to buy them because it is cost-effective or whatever. This means that the group that doesn't have a 737 MAX is going to be smaller and therefore harder/way more expensive to avoid.

It's not much different than the NEO, the pitch was that you will not have to send your pilots back to training because "it's just a 737". Since it clearly is not just a 737 the NEO (which is also a variant, but one that didn't inherently change the aerodynamics of the plane) now has the advantage, not just because reputation.

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