Come on now BOAC, make your mind up. First you say:
so, you are saying, that in your experience, it is not unusual to eat all your contingency and start to use up the planned holding fuel? Time to take a little more, I feel, or maybe get Ops to review the airframe fuel burns? I know what I would do.
Then you say:
Incidentally, the 'short-haul/long-haul' bit is irrelevant - 5% is 5%, and it is very easy to use all your 150kg contingency on a 1 hour flight just by being held for take-off a few minutes, even without 'wrong levels', 'winds' or 'weather'
Are you lobbying your Ops people to increase your 150kg contingency fuel? Or do you accept that it's very easy to eat up your contingency fuel (whatever that quantity is) just by being held for take off for a few minutes, or being held down for a few hours? Do you have much experience of 4 engine long haul ops?