Does QF/BA not do what NZ does and have a crew based at the furthest outpost? How it works for NZ is LHR based crew do LHR-HKG-LHR and LHR-LAX-LHR, and NZ based crew do AKL-HKG-AKL, AKL-LAX-AKL (and the other routes too). In this set up no crew do the long AKL-LAX-LHR-LAX-AKL roundtrip (at least while working as crew).