Changing Pitot
Per Bloomberg, AF had the new pitot tubes in hand, and I'm sure I read early in the other thread that the accident plane was scheduled to get them on the next C check (approximate annual inspection.) IIRC, this plane had over 18,000 hours in about 4 years, an incredibly high rate of utilization. This leaves precious little time for non-routine maintenance at home base, such as changing pitot tubes.
You don't just change the pitot tubes and walk away; you then have to perform a full pressure-static check, including pneumatically pumping up the altitude to above max altitude, so you leave those changes for the C check if you can.
It must be quite a serious flaw in the pitot tubes that they have to be replaced with new ones, rather than re-worked. Safety review teams at Thales, Airbus and AF apparently did a cost/benefit analysis and came up with the wrong answer, if erroneous airspeed was the initial event.
GB