<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ozstamps:
But this flight just seemed the same 2 staffers in F from pre-dep drinks to landing. As I posted - they were keen and young and delightful, so no issues there at all. Wow - does a fully loaded 747 to oz get by on only 15 FA's?
That Purser was the one who seemed rather steamed the original crew was not going places. From your post comment does it fall upon him/her to make that offer to the company, or is it a consensus/vote type deal of FAs there? Perhaps they were going to get stuck with 20 x SFO-DEN runs rostered to make up the monthly hours or whatever? 
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Maybe the two were so eager at going to SYD for the first time they were to excited to take their breaks... who knows...
We each make our own decisions about waiving contractual provisions. The Purser cannot decide for the whole crew; neither can the majority decide for the minority. If it comes down to it, each person decides for her/himself if they are going to waive. And yes, in the real world, a consideration some give is "If I don't waive to go on this nice SYD trip, what terrible trips are they going to come up for me to do instead."
I can't explain why everyone would tell you it was a different plane when it really wasn't. You are right; if they didn't know they should have just said "I don't know." But I am glad you finally made it home safely.