ironbutt
a bit confused here , can you enlighten please?
I'm not GF crew but interested in the topic. At our airline, transit clearance for captains only meant when we divert to stations with no Engineer to sign-off and do the necessary checks/fueling etc.
But you say you had an engineer on board , then what's he doing on board? Was he travelling ACM or something?
If used by airlines to "cut" costs, sadly another example of being penny- wise , there are certain things a well trained, experienced engineer can observe & detect on a short transit .
Masalama.