Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Distraction; Time Pressure; Workload
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Diverted
Company Policy; Weather; Procedure
This event involved a divert from DFW due to thunderstorms. Our original flight plan listed alternates of DAL (which is useless) and AUS. AUS had good weather and we were planning to go there as we entered holding on the DFW arrival. ATC gave us an EFC just under 2 hours in the future. We had about 20 minutes of holding fuel before our planned divert to AUS. All of the appropriate ACARS messages had been sent to the company. With 5 minutes left I sent a Free Text message to dispatch and told them we were diverting to AUS. Two minutes later; I receive a response that said; 'we need you to go to LBB because we have too many aircraft at AUS'. I'm at bingo fuel with no information on LBB. I changed the plan with ATC and headed for LBB. During descent; 5 feet of ACARS paper printed out detailing the NOTAMS and weather at LBB. The weather turned to moderate chop/turbulence as we descended into developing convective weather between us and LBB. On approach we realized that runway 35 was shortened and requested Runway 8/26. Winds were 060/15 G 25 knots. An [aircraft] went around for wind shear on Runway 35. We requested and received RNAV Runway 8 approach. The entire descent/approach was flown in the 'YELLOW' as my experienced First Officer (FO) and I worked independently to digest rapidly changing weather; wind shear warnings; and an unfamiliar airport. I flew and talked to ATC while he did everything else. LBB approach basically briefed me on the airport conditions because there was no time to digest the ACARS info before LBB became unsuitable for landing due to deteriorating weather. Fortunately; no altitude busts or deviations occurred.  Once on the ground; dispatch continued to push for a minimum fuel launch and return to [the original destination]. My conversations with him included him saying; 'You must get airborne or you will lose your release time!' All the while ATC had a ground stop in place for DFW extending 2 hours into the future. I insisted on 2;000 pounds of extra fuel over his protests. We ended up sitting in LBB for 3.5 hours waiting for the ground stop to lift. This became a nightmare divert and there was no reason for it. I should have gone to AUS; which was the plan right up to the divert point. The dispatcher was reacting rather than thinking ahead and I allowed him to put me in a dangerous position. That will not happen again. If dispatch puts out 100 flight plans with AUS as an alternate; then they should plan to have 100 aircraft at AUS. I will go where I think it is safest.My confidence in in this company's dispatch has been badly damaged by this event. Am I getting accurate information? Why is the dispatch plan diametrically opposed to the ATC plan? Do they talk to each other? Who is pushing this dispatcher? We will hurt someone if this type of operation continues.I don't know what to fix here because I don't know what is going on in Dispatch during these weather events. From my end; I will not react to a changing plan from Dispatch when I know my original plan will work.
An aircraft dispatched to DFW with an AUS alternate was diverted to LBB by Dispatch and had to contend with thunderstorms on arrival. The Captain will go the filed alternate next time with better known weather.