Rapid D,
We dealt with a related issue at my carrier. There was an endless changing of airplanes at Sao Paulo after a 8-10 hour flight from MIA/JFK. The crew was supposed to wait at GRU for the DFW airplane, more than 2-3 hours after an all night flight.
Meanwhile both crews would switch planes, and both planes would end up back in the the same damn place, GRU, that night after their Rio and Ascuncion turns.
Then one morning a real Captain showed up on the flight from JFK. He was told he would wait 3 hours for the DFW inbound plane, company said tough, "you wait pilot boy". He offered to take his JFK plane to Rio, company said "tough, you wait pilot boy". The Captain said, I'm fatigued, goodnight, I'll be resting at the hotel.
I arrived that morning in GRU marveling at the chaos. When I heard the story, and knew the total BS of the cubicle dwellers behind it, I finally smiled to myself as I thought "damn, there's a real Captain". It's amazing what an airline will do to drive an actual Admiral in the US Navy Reserves to such an action.
A few years later he retired.
Not long after that he was a passenger in the aircraft that hit the the Pentagon on 9/11 along with his wife of many years.