Slip and Turn you are missing the point completely!
No matter how perceptive you think you are unless you have all the information ON THE DAY, for that departure you have no idea what factors were affecting the aircraft performance or the reasons for the choice of departure point.
ADD's, packs on or off, peformance corrections with CDL items in addition to the actual airfield information rather than your perception of what is a 'normal' departure are the components that go to make the decisions.
Even with that information whether you think it is bad practice to save a couple if minutes or not is immaterial as long as the aircraft was operated in accordance with the performance calculations.
I just don't think that leaving a quarter of the runway behind you when you are not light is good practice.
In a perf A aircraft whether you get airborne with 1000ft of runway ahead or 6000ft makes no difference. V1 is V1, there IS enough runway to stop if the decision is made to do so by that speed and beyond it irrespective of how much runway is still left you are going to fly over it!
I truly hope you are not an aviation professional because if you are you really need to go and have a close look at the books again, both Perf A and SOP's.
If you are not then please avoid your back seat speculating as to the inappropriateness of the crews's actions and let the people in the front with the information pertanant to your flight make their decision.
Asking a legitimate question as to whether the runway behind is just to save time and if it has safety implications is entirely fair. That has been clearly answered. Now you are arguing that the decisions made were not good practice...that to I hope is now clearly answered also.
Jazzy
Edited to add that my post crossed with Slip and Turn's regarding his aviation background. I think Eff Oh makes my point, finish your training, and leave commenting on the professionalism of the professionals until you join their ranks whereupon you'll find unless we have ALL the information...we don't!