...I know I am also paranoid about fuel,
And you don't think we aren't also? Strewth, few things frighten me more than 250 plus punters and crew and very little 'go' juice available! (Unless I'm on fire of course!
)
I'll give you another example of a diversion. Taxiing out of MEL recently for SYD we get advised that SYD now has 30 minutes traffic holding. That's OK because we reckon we've got about 45 minutes on top of min op because we'd already loaded a bit of extra. En route we get climbed to a higher than preferred level (lower levels all very bumpy) which cost us some gas. We also get told holding now is 37 minutes. We get held at FL380 instead of our preferred level and that costs us more gas. After all that we could have continued to Sydney and made a legal approach on just above min fuel. However given all the variables in play (possible weather diversions en route from where ATC were holding us for the un forecast TS into Sydney, the good chance of an extended circuit due to traffic and the fact that it would have been nice to have a 'go around' and another approach at the end of all that) we lobbed into Canberra for extra fuel.
My point? Sometimes things change and Plan A is not going to work any longer- despite the best intentions at the beginning of the flight and a conservative fuel order in the first instance. It's not bad airmanship, it's not trying to 'cut it fine', it's not even about 'saving money'. It's about aviation being a dynamic and changing environment (particularly over the 14+ hours of a LAX-SYD sector) and dealing with issues as they arise.
...whilst all sorts of misfortune may befall me, running out of fuel wont be one of them.
I certainly hope that's the case. Not being a 'min fuel' guy myself, I can tell you that the knot in the stomach when you're looking at arriving with less than you want to when there is poor weather around isn't a nice one. Diverting for more fuel tends to make that feeling go away pretty quick smart.
So I hope we can all leave this UA diversion into Brissie as just one of those things that happen in aviation from time to time and not get all wound up about it.