Re. domestics requiring a longer runway and being questioned. When the previous however many 737s/A320s have accepted the shorter runway and you don't it strikes us as rather odd and we begin to wonder if you have a problem. Fine if you don't want to tell us but it helps our planning if we know the reason so we can plan around it accordingly if necessary.
Fair enough - but it could be that compared to the previous similar types, we're 20 tonnes heavier, got a couple of brakes and a reverser MEL'd out, and it's the end of a long day. Not a problem as such, but we still need the longer runway. Do we really have to explain all that, or can you just take our word for it?
Not that I'm complaining - I don't think I've ever had ATC query it when we've required a different runway to the one they want to give us.
And it is a bit embarrassing when you hear:
XYZ: "XYZ require 16R"
ATC: "XYZ, understood, expect a 12 minute delay for 16R"
XYZ: "Oh in that case, we'll take 16L then"
