Glofish,
you are wrong. Those flights are not, I repeat not variation 1 flights. If it was then it would show on your roster. It does not. I went to the third floor to regulatory affairs, and asked. Repeat. Not variation 1. Please go ask .

Well, the answer on the FSW is the following:

(i know we should not publish internas. But this is discussed ad infinitum and basically it's a procedure and no names are involved. To clarify what is out there, and this is a matter of safety, i only copy the answer)

"The flight can be operated within a variation of the flight time limitation using a two man crew only. The third crew member on these night turn-around operations have been added after consideration by the XXX, to improve operating crew member alertness through in-flight relief. They have not been added to extend the flight time limitations and if captain’s discretion to extend the flight duty period for 2 man crew has been used, it must be reported."

The way i interpret it, is that the flights "can" be operated with a variation.

They can be, but they are not. And if they are not is this legal? The author of this response is giving a different response from regulatory affairs. The fleet facts december says a different thing.

I know that we let things slide if its a hassle. The company does no favours for us
anymore. We are doing ourselves no favours here as professional pilots to let the company make us operate under such hazy circumstances. Clarity is needed. I for one think the flights are much better this way, but I i still want to make sure that I am operating in a legal manner. Do we not all want that?

I don't get why they made TRV 3 pilots. I had to AUG that flight twice being 520... terrible.

TRV
 

These flights are not operated to Variation 1. case in point the rest required before the variation (Nights rest) which is definitely not the case on the 330 fleet to TRV. Planned duty 11 hours. Max duty 10 hrs 15 min. (extension from variation 1 is only 30 min). The only way to extend the duty is with augmentation 1hr if the operating pilots receive 3 hrs rest (not consecutive) which means a change in seats during climb and descent ( above FL 200) doable on paper but not in reality.
Discretion is a quagmire! can you exercise it if you are planned to exceed duty?. I would think not.