AA did something similar a few years back…there was one month in particular that their PBS Award got jacked up and ever single person got something like a 4 day holiday weekend off (or the week of Christmas)….they came right out and said “we screwed up…everything that touches that weekend is now premium”. I believe they had zero problem covering those rotations.

Delta could cover every trip NLT the 8 hour prior point via 23M7 and jumping straight to QS….they choose not to….guess they don’t want to pay for it and would rather cancel the flights and blame the pilots.