Mr Bloggs,
Mate. You got it all right. Thas IS how it IS! Maybe it was different in the past - unfortunately thats not where we live - we live in the real world as per your description. This company will not give a cent without getting a dollar back. CX are in the money only business and that comes before anything else - anything.
You can see it all coming just by reading the AoA updates on the ongoing "negotiations" - its really sad reading.
Anybody thinking there will be any kind of improvement to the current CoS without the pilot core paying for it themselves and most likely paying more than given - well.. why dont we just wait and see..