Pilots claim airliners forced to fly with low fuel

[SeniorDispatcher]

Of course it matters Norman, and isn't irrelavent, since to release a flight under Part 121 the Dispatcher has to sign off on the plan too.

Of course, there is that rogue crew out there that defaults to the presumption that he always knows better than anyone else, and does whatever the h*** he wants anyways. Classic case in point: (The locations involved have been changed to protect the guilty)

Flight was scheduled to operate PHX-OKC-TUL, during the last couple of hours of the operating day. Springtime cold front marching down towards the area. Dispatcher leaves message for PIC to call him from OKC.

Ring.
Dispatch...
This is flight nnnn; I got a message to call...
There's a line of thunderstorms...
(Interrupting) Yeah I see it, I've been watching the damn thing for the last 200 miles into OKC.
Well, the line starts about 20nm NE of OKC and goes all the way into Wisconsin. Since it's still NW of TUL, what I want you to do is delay your departure by about 15 minutes, and when you do launch, head NE of OKC about 30nm, and then head east, on the north side of the line. You may have to hold for a few minutes until the line clears TUL, but as fast as the line is moving, it won't be long. There's no way you'll beat the line to TUL leaving ontime, via the normal route.
Click.

I called the station back about 5 minutes later, and the ops guy said the flight had already departed, instead of waiting. He aso took a 090 heading, on the south side of the line. The weather did indeed beat him to TUL, and the line was solid. As this was back in the non-ASD days, we didn't have the computer ability to visually observe actual flight activity. ZKC and ZAU told us that he had deviated all the way to Wisconsin looking for a hole to get through but found none. Flight does a 180 turn and heads back to the SW, still on the south side of the line. In the time since he'd departed OKC, the front had continued its march to the SE, and the line had built much further to the SW. By the time he reached the end of the line, it was almost at LBB, whereupon he turned the corner, went direct and overflew OKC (from whence he'd started) and finally landed at TUL. Normal flight time was about 20-25 minutes. Because of this PIC's pig-headed arrogance, his actual flight time was well over 2 hours. The only thing that allowed him to land at TUL, and not somehere short thereof) was the fact that they were lightly loaded and had a boatload of tanker fuel aboard, which ended up being all wasted.

Had they not had the tanker fuel, the dispatcher was on top of the situation, and had his finger on the "emergency declaration" trigger, ready to pull it if necessary.