Exeng,
I will explain what I meant because it's OBVIOUS you didn't understand.
I was mentioning aspects that WILL help save fuel, but never said that those needed to become policies or were always the best courses of action.
1) reduced climb. If for some reason your estimated fuel on board on arrival is too close to reserve+alternate, that's one thing you can do, especially if flying with a tailwind.
2) you and probably everyone else in the airline you work for are perfect (except for forgetting to start the apu on time, according to your confession) but here in imperfectland I've seen improper use of engine (and wing) anti ice repeatedly.
Examples...keeping it on when OAT is less than -40°C during climb and cruise with no thunderstorms around AND failing to enter the altitudes for TAI ON and OFF in the forecast page. That DOES increase fuel burn.
Regarding the -40°C criteria, of course I don´t just automatically turn it off when OAT says -40.0001°C but I noticed pilots still using it while riding inside harmless cirrus with OATs well below -40°C. There's a reason for NOT using engine anti ice with OATs below -40°C.
4) APUs. We fly into a few airports where taxi times can be as much as 20-30 minutes after landing. During THOSE operations what I do is I tell my first officer WHERE we will start the apu. I use a location during taxi where I am a few minutes from the gate, I can still ask for a GPU if an APU fails to start and of course the apu will be started and transferred well before engine shut down (you may want to try this
yourself) From my experience, B737NG APUs are extremely reliable and after a little over a year flying the NG I can remember one time when an APU failed to start. I do not combine engine out taxi WITH an apu still off tho.
You see the company I fly for is in the process of developing fuel saving procedures, but in the meantime I use my own as nothing has been written otherwise.
Next time you contact me spare me the dos and don'ts, will ya Mr Perfect?