Any crew member should set off on any day expecting to use
discretion - thats what it is for. Was it this Guys first day, if so there would be a higher expectancy that it could be used.
Was it 5 minutes or 2 hours - was he/she on a 55 hour week
Was the original schedule unrealistic from the planning stage.
I dont see any issue with a Pilot Manager being able to speak to his Captain to discuss the reasons for declining to use discretion,
even if its a straight no.
The only sad fact is that in the old days flights rostered to max duty where few and far between,TLV and BJL maybe nowdays its the norm to go multisector and up to the limit. Some Loco's and CX likely to be on fixed weeks still rather than rolling accumulators to make the situ worse.
