There is no way that they would commit to 777/350 orders without a finalised EBA
There for all and sundry is Qantas IR strategy laid bare.
From the bowels of QCA, the Campus or whatever buzzword infests them this week, that is their strategy: Use the threat of a new aircraft to lever contract concessions.
Of course having done it once, why not try it again.
Crew costs do not change strategic fleet considerations. Fleet decisions take in so many complex considerations of range and payload, network, performance considerations, airport considerations and indeed what is likely to be the case over the aircraft's operating life, that 'landed crew costs' are a simple entry on a spread sheet. For nearly every other airline, the investment of over $250 million and nearly twenty years worth of operations, what the crew is paid is at best a minor consideration. It might suit a pilot psyche to think they are the primary consideration they are not.
But a nice way to control the pilot body is to convince them that without 'concession' no new aircraft..