And........ relax!
It's because of $hit like this that I PVR'd. If you have no experience of being an AT/AAR operator, I would suggest that your opinion is largely bse on myth and hearsay. The "all truckies stay in 5* hotac and play the allowances system" myth ended in 2001 with the advent of Ex Saif Sareea II. I would love to have spent the last five years checking in to luxury.
If you were pax on RAF AT, do you seriously want any of the crew to be anything less than 100% when it comes to safety issues? Really? Even if you are a steely eyed GR7/Herc/SH dude who sleeps in a tent on ops? What's the point on saving a few quid if your safety might (and I stress might) depend on the actions of that fat SAC wearing desert flying suit that you sorely covet (the flying suit, not the SAC). Do YOU know how to operate the doors/run an evacuation drill/deploy the slides? Doesn't really matter how good you are at your job, the afore mentioned actions are the preserve of the steward you love to whinge about.
If you are on a trail, either as the boss of a FJ sqn or a tanker techie, the AARC inevitably requests that EVERYONE is co-located. It's just easier. Placing some people in a hotel and others in the block at AKT means that there is a difficult transport plot to think about. OpO 06/01 lays out the power invested in an AARC- it really is a ridiculous amount of executive authority to place in the hands of a JO. However, despite this, all an AARC can do is REQUEST co-location of all personnel in AKT. The accommodation cell has the ultimate say.
Why should AT crew and pax not all stay together? Are you serious? Just think about how awful the prospect of being pax in RAF AT is- would you not want to go out and get utterly plastered if the chance arose? Finger-poke the captain about the inevitable delay/revitin/why the fat SAC steward has a desert flying suit and you don't? It's just a $hit idea. And guess what? The cheap (and like it or not, we are very very budget driven) option is to put the crew (10 or so) in hotac and the hundred or so pax in service accommodation.
Have any of you been in the standard AT/AAR hotels in Cyprus? I'd love to tell you that they are palatial, with 48" LCD TVs in the toilet and 24hr on demand massages, however the truth is they are utter toilets. Block 100/101/102 (delete as applicable) are no better or worse, and they are without the 45 minute transit to Limassol.
Please do not read this as a lament as to how difficult the life of a shiny fleet bloke is- believe me I now exactly which side my bread is buttered on. And I'm off. If it was as good as some of you thought I'd be staying. There are preconceptions on both sides- my question is, why are there sides?