Ladies and Gentlemen,
Anyone who has flown or is flying a A330 will tell you, that upon receiving an ECAM cautionary messsage regarding a fuel imbalance, it is clearly instructed during training to consult ones QRH. In which, the prcedure quite clearly states, if an imbalance has occured AND A FUEL LEAK HAS BEEN CONFIRMED as NOT BEING PRESENT to go ahead and open the cross feed.
Airbus has made it very clear that an imbalance situation can be managed with a Fuel leak. Cautious use of the cross feed would keep the imbalance in check. As for handing out awards, well they did get it down, however to put the lives of over 200 passengers, is not good airmanship.
Bottom line is, and the incident report will show this, they did not follow correct procedure and did not adhere to the written words of the QRH. NOT GOOD AIRMANSHIP in my opinion.