B777 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Total 6178; Flight Crew Type 3044
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
The flight was originally planned on a southerly route due to an expiring SIGMET for a volcanic eruption. Shortly after my arrival at operation (2 hours prior); the SIGMET for the eruption was rescinded. Noting the flight plan had us landing ten minutes late and flying through every SIGMET and FPG (Flight Planning Guidance) for turbulence; I contacted dispatch hoping to have the plan changed to a smoother and much faster northern route since the eruption was no longer an issue. The flight plan had 13 minutes of extra fuel and landing with a very comfortable 21.3 Remaining Fuel. At first the dispatcher informed me that there would no time to re-run the flight plan because he was too busy with flight planning the upcoming flight; but to give him my cell phone just in case he had time to get it done. I was very happy to get a call from the dispatcher 45 minutes prior to departure informing me that Release 3 was on the way with a 22-minute reduction in flight time and projected smooth ride with only few exceptions. Since all the Class II points had changed; I requested a new flight plan printout. He was able to send it to the cockpit printer; however; it was unreadable and unusable since all the pages were disjointed and completely out of order. Luckily; after much effort we were able to get a copy from the international terminal. The Electronic Flight Bag download did work; however; it required a trip to the gate area since LTE-reception is very poor on the even numbered side of the international terminal. Imagine my surprise when I finally saw that Release 3 had now a fuel increase! Extra fuel increased to 1+07 and Remaining fuel was now 33.5! Since the flight was now 30 minutes from departure; unfortunately; the fuel was already boarded. To make matters worse; every-passenger would not be boarded due to our new weight restriction! Later; querying the dispatcher how this could have happened; his response was 'well; that's what you get if you change the routing.'As a Line Check Airman; I always stress the importance of working with dispatch to arrive at both a safe and cost effective fuel load especially In light of the fact that our fleet has the most inefficient statistics regarding Remaining fuel. This effort; however; is completely moot with flight planning as experienced above.
A B777 Captain reported requesting a reroute that resulted in excessive fuel on-board and a weight-limited aircraft; and consequently some passengers were unable to board.