FE Hoppy,
just to give you a better illustration. on our b777, we used to fly CI 130 which approx equates LRC of M0.84 in still air. but now, we are flying in the range of CI 16-32 which only gives M0.828 at OPT ALT. on an average 12 hrs flight, we lose 10mins but 'gain' about 1,000kg fuel. as i've said earlier, at current times, 1,000kg multiplies the number of long-haul flights we have a day, it can work out to be quite substantial!
SR