As for calling the dispatcher (in "Ice Station Zebra") to ask for another 1-2,000 lbs of extra contingency fuel, they seem to want to know the reason. This is at a US major airline (744-757...).
Simply by calling and mentioning some nearby weather which we might have just seen on the radar summary (if easily accessible-sometimes not), which is moving near or parallel to either the departue or destination airport, or the large area of forecast turbulence over the Great Lakes at FL220-350 (our max ceiling) near a jetstream wind, he/she can spot your concern and rarely mentions an excuse not to add a little fuel. Often, we have no fuel planned for an alternate airport, and just the normal 45 minutes Reserve and about 25-30 min Cont. fuel. This often is the case even for a two hour enroute block time, not including up to i.e. 20 minutes taxi fuel.
If we often call Dispatch to add such a modest amount of extra fuel, I don't know if a Chief Pilot is informed of this. But if we avoid a supposed serious delay right at departure to add fuel (but none added) and we tell Dispatch enroute that due to extra vectoring after climbing from Midway (Chicago) and almost half of cont. is already gone, we will need to state "Min Fuel" upon checking in with "Peoples' Republik" Approach Control, then a Chief (or Asst.) Chief Pilot is notified and just wants a quick chat. Now, whether this is required or because the Chief Dispatcher feels like his staff have been slighted by the unspoken implications regarding their fuel planning policies, I have no idea .
. Don't get me wrong. Our Dispatch Dept. is excellent and in my opinion, they are worth their weight in GOLD. Unless you want to do your own "raw data" flight planning like they did years ago on Connie Kalitta's cargo Learjets (many 16-28 hour duty days, thanks to Part 91 ferry flights on either end of planned duty period).
And this was before the recent fuel price manipulations (Ausbeutung von Arschloecher?), eh...I mean increases. Nice time to have owned fuel shares on Wall Street
, as during Desert Storm in '91?
