Sandy
In a nutshell, my point a little obtuse, was that night credit protect the pilots from rosters of all night flying by loading the flying so that not as much could be fitted (flying wise) on a roster. There is a bunch of medical evidence about circadian disturbance and the effects of time zone changes and in addition flying at night.
The 787 contract may well have a higher hourly rate but with little overtime and no night credits I suspect the pilots will be very very tired, for not much upside, it depends on one's priority.
The point on the aircraft selection is that the route may be technically feasible, but the aircraft is an interesting selection. The seat pitch in Y class will be as Ben Sandlinands quite rightly picked up, the same as a 737 plus an inch..That is extremely tight for 18 hours..
From sources well placed, the EK alliance has little commercial upside for Qantas (Hence no financial disclosure of the benefit to QF shareholders) , is very restrictive and perhaps until the little fellow and Dorothy are shown the exit, the alliance remains something the ever diminishing Qantas network will have to contend with.