Interesting. . .. .Could the747 Captain have easily diverted without declaring a system problem or emergency with Air Traffic Control? Would Singapore Airlines Flight Ops normally consider sharply criticizing or even punishing the Captain for a precautionary divert, even earlier in the descent towards Brussels, Amsterdam or Frankfurt etc, if prolonged vectoring and/or holding had been anticipated during the initial descent? . .. .Does Singapore Airlines Flight Operations expect, or worse, demand that any Captain not divert until the aircraft has, as is our company example for minimum divert fuel, Alternate + Reserve (figured for cruise burn at FL 250) fuel onboard? We can always divert with this so-called F.O. Manual "Decision Fuel" (I doubt that our Chief Pilots realize how many diverts take place, or what what the total fuel was when they began), but almost all of our folks would add an extra 1,000 to 1500 or even 2,000 pounds to our official theoretical minimum " Decison Fuel", for a certain twin-jet. Maybe our corporate accountants have influenced what this Flight Ops Manual fuel quantity consists of? At Value Jet, now known as Air Tran, a former Captain was required to call his Dispatcher before each and every flight in order to board ANY "Contingency Fuel"! Value Jet was too cheap and greedy to plan it beforehand. This guy is one of our First Officers.. .. .Heck, ATC often stops you from climbing to the planned altitude and direct routing during diverts and there are too many cases of thunderstorms and/or dense air traffic between you and your alternate airport. I almost always declare "min fuel" during diverts, so they will do their job better. You might get to the alternate and only have two green gear lights or a "Slat Disagreement" light, and wiith bad weather close by. If you fly the line instead of a desk, be ready to throw your book policy and theory out the window before being intimidated by Ops Policy, if safety is about to be compromised. But I've never worked in other cultures. Our Dispatchers are already warm and safe on the ground when we make the decision as to our Divert Fuel. Sometimes a company dispatcher, although they are all very valuable, has less influence ("clout") via a phone call, on ATC's decision to get you out of holding or extended vectors, than some of them realize, or they can be overly optimistic.. . . . <small>[ 07 March 2002, 02:53: Message edited by: Ignition Override ]</small>