Hi All,
We had a good look at this on my last flight. At the moment, everyone is focusing on the outbound flight as it is the longest, but the reality is, it is legal. Its very tight, but the company is expecting you to "go that extra mile" and use discretion if you are delayed. I won't get in to what you should or shouldn't do on that, as its the individual commanders decision on the day of.
However, food for thought, the return flight is actually the more limiting flight, especially with a 3 man operation. What is very important here, and you must look at, is the layover MUST be longer than 30 hours! If it not, the flight is not legal, as you will be in discretion before ever showing up to the airplane. The same thing happens quite often on the Shanghai 302 pairing when they try to run in 2 man in the summer.
What this means is, if you are the slightest bit late, you must delay pick-up and technically the return flights departure time. This is the reason it operated 4 man in the winter and 3 man in the summer. The flight times don't change, but they get an extra hour of cushion on the layover (in the summer, JFK layover is 31 hours, in the winter, its 30) due to daylight savings time. So, since we all know the flight is going to be delayed out of Dubai with this runway closure, its is very important you keep an eye on your layover length times. This is one the company knows they can't touch, and they will delay the flight outbound. Its happened to me on several occasions from Shanghai and every single time, without question, they delayed the pickup and flight departure.
This is a calculated risk on their part, but hold very firm to that 30 hour layover period. If you are below it, your duty period is not sufficient. If you get ramp checked by the FAA, they will come down on you harshly if you are found to be outside your duty period (no discretion) while sitting on the game. I would suggest that any of the yanks give even more thought to this because they will go after your FAA licenses as well (whether its legal for them to do so is another discussion and not for this thread).
If they are continuously delaying departures due to the rest period, I think it will go back fairly quickly. So before you get mad and go high speed on the way to BOS or JFK and back, just think about what you are actually doing as it may not be your smartest move if you want to see change.
Remember, you can play hard ball and try to pick a fight, and you may or may not get anywhere. However, its much more efficient to follow the rules and use them to your advantage. This is exactly what they do. Know the book, know what it says, and know where to use in your favor!. A delay out of JFK with a late arrival in Dubai WILL get their attention as 90 percent (my guess) of those passengers connect 2 hours later to the subcontinent. If they miss their connections the whole people moving machine starts to break down. My guess is, its also why YYZ operates with 4 crew instead of 3, as it gets in slightly later than the JFK or BOS and they aren't willing to risk that many mis connections due to a delay out of YYZ.
(NOTE: Feel free to take a look at the duty times on the return sector, as I could have miscalculated, but according to my calculations, its more restrictive than the outbound flight.)