Well, I suppose I would sometimes as well, but that's to do with airline seating choices more than anything else. Emirates has 10-across economy in its 777s - n

Well, I suppose I would sometimes as well, but that's to do with airline seating choices more than anything else. Emirates has 10-across economy in its 777s - no thanks! Whereas Cathay stuck with 9, which is way better. Meanwhile a Qantas 787 is pretty nice to ride in, but a Jetstar or Scoot is cramped as hell. Noise cancelling headphones pretty much remove the noise issue for me. You're right though, I over-generalised saying all passenger prefer newer planes all of the time - they don't. What they emphatically do prefer, however, is point to point flights - which the new generations of planes open up. Bigger planes like the 777s and above are in many ways a relic of the hub and spoke system, with its multiple transfers and 24hr+ flight times. I'm sad to see the big planes reduced in importance, but newcomers like the 787, a350 and even a321 render a lot more city pairs economically viable. For this reason they're far more versatile an investment for the airliners, and passengers choose direct every time if the price is reasonable.