Authority
I have now retired, so no longer have to bother with counter-arguments over fuel. Our company had a line for “Reason for extra fuel” On the advice of an old hand referred to above (JW and the red cap), I always put POM as the reason. It was never queried.
Lack of fuel can bite – and how. I was positioning crew on one flight and was called in to help the newly qualified F/O manage the rapidly vanishing gas. We finally landed and the APU stopped after less than 10 mins! From Standby I once accepted an a/c on a calm clear winter day when the captain failed to report. It was all ready to go but had company fuel in tanks. I would have preferred more, but everyone was on board and we were already 15 mins late. On finals, the tower reported wind was suddenly 50 kts across. Diverted to alt. A few minutes before arrival, the airfield went out in a blinding snow storm – unexpected and certainly not forecast. Fortunately there was another airfield within 50 miles. Straight in but ran into snow with virtually zero vis half way down the runway and almost dry tanks. I should have listened to that other old guy who told me that “It is better to be 20 minutes late in this world than 20 years early in the next”.
Wind your shoulders out and do your own thing!