Worth bearing in mind that there could be a greater percentage of pax in premium cabins using Skywards miles to either upgrade or fund their ticket, which in turn diminishes revenue. Flights are quiet and seat availability in theory should be abundant, unless the company has restricted this.
I do believe the 777 fleet was planned to contract slightly in size so whilst I am not disputing the malevolence of management, there may have been some rationale behind the decision to trim numbers. However given we are now short of pilots on the triple, it appears to have been grossly misjudged.