Whilst I agree with a lot of the above, we as flight crew are not aware of the whole story. We don't know what a hotel room around the airport will cost. We don't know what it will cost to throw one of our punters on a different airline's aircraft, we don't know what percentage of our punters will claim eu261 compensation.
We like to think we know better than others but in reality we don't. We do not know how much it will cost to get joe bloggs from Paris to Heathrow to Kennedy. I have regularly been given high speed flight plans and I have been asked to slow down. I am absolutely happy to do everything to the best of my ability to reduce costs. But I will also fly the plan. At worst if I don't I'll lose a third pilot or an extra day off or..........