I'll have a go at some kind of defence for them (even if they are / were 3*'s)
Firstly, Did you have a PRO / Senior person who was designated your POC on the trip for starters ? How often did they speak to you all as passengers ?That will determine how much of the mushroom effect you experienced.
3 hrs in Muscat. I assume it was a quick turn before heading off east some more ? Or was there some issue that they needed everyone off the jet while they worked it ? Maybe they expected the stop to be shorter than it was and risked running out of crew duty if the pax went into the terminal ? Maybe there was no support to move everyone at 3 a.m for the refuel ? In every case, I doubt very much if the crew's intentions were to try and f**k you over for the sake of it.
Different hoel to the crew is normal / preferred. When things go wrong, having 90 pax at your door asking when the planes going to be fixed and how they are going to get back for their rugby tournament is beyond your job. Never helps to have a load of pax out all night and waking you up 4 hrs before wheels in the hotel after the final night out before departing. RAFLO's deal with all this or in their physical absence, the Co / Loadmaster pays for all the rooms / meals and all this is explained to the PRO who should brief every pax. Has happened like that on every trip I've broken down on.
Tire blows on landing. GE reckons it could take off and make it back ? You sure you were speaking to the GE ? I'd laugh him out of the flight deck if he came up ther spouting sh!t like that. You blow a tire on the M4 at Bristol. You keep driving to London ?
6 day wait. Bearing in mind the time changes, I guess that's how long it took to call back to Brize, get the wheel, decide how to send it, get it out there, CLEAR CUSTOMS (which can be the biggest pain in the ass of it all) and then fit it. Given the state of our air force, 6 days for a tire to Sydney doesn't sound to bad ...
150 pax sit in barracks. I'm getting the feeling it's the "sit in barracks" part that's annoying you here. I'll say only this.
When I'm sat down the back, landing at an airfield with poor vis / bad weather / tricky crosswinds and with a crew that have potential crossed multiple time zones with minimum time on the ground, I never want the cost of that pilots hotel room to be a factor. $60 saved on putting them in the barracks also is a false economy when we lose an aircraft / lives due to fatigue. So, IMO, put them up in the Ritz for all I care. As long as they are in the best possible condition to land that plane and keep my life going, I'm happy.