Originally Posted by
Andy
LCAL didn't fly TATL unaugmented for the last 20 years? I must've been in a Twilight Zone episode in late 2011 when I nonrevved EWR-CDG. I sat next to the deadheading third pilot who would be the IRO on the return trip and told me that this was a common practice and explained that it was cheaper to the company to deadhead him than fly the leg.
Or maybe on the free first class sauce and confusing legend with reality.
Deadhead paid blended rate in 2011, he wasn't making less than "on duty, as you put it. He may have been the IRO, talking to you about something in the past.