With the greatest respect, I have to weigh in on the side of the QF staff. One can cheese pare and cheese pare till the cows come home, however by the time you realise that you have cut too deeply the damage is already done.
Cuts in Engineering, pressure on Cabin crew and Pilots, configuration changes to aircraft and so on all add up, but the results may not be seen until there is a catastrophic event.
Readers may note a thread about a diversion to a little known Russian (ok khazakwhatisname) airport after an LHR Bound 747 had a fire warning in the cargo hold.
Anyone care to think about what might happen if the crew is in the middle of an industrial dispute, the aircraft is carrying a few "defects" (such as dodgy tires) and the cabin crew are worn to a shred trying to look after too many pax with too few staff?
When you cheese pare with an airline, you don't get incremental reduction in capacity. Its like a stall, one minute the aircraft is flying, then all of a sudden it isn't. I don't think management understands that.
Translation: The first evidence that maybe you have cut too deep could be a large smoking hole in the ground. Good airlines understand this.