Hey BAcrewboy - welcome back!
Having worked today aswell on airport standby, I can only pretty much say what BAcrewboy has said - there were loads of crew, WW and BF were there, and it is extremely clear BASSA are lying when they are saying only 26 crew are turning up! It was quite a good atmosphere in CRC actually, we were all in the same boat at the end of the day!
And I don't think the FIRST customers will put up with a sandwich for very long!
That was my thoughts too Ottergirl! You could realistically crew a 747 with 12 crew but the services would have to be reduced and the passengers wouldn't be too happy! Having said this, on shorthaul the crew complement changes are going OK on most routes. Longhaul particularly the 747 may be different, because of 4 cabins and the sheer number of pax but as I am not LH I don't know.