Originally Posted by clubord

I was flying one of those CDG/IAD diversion flights. There was a stretch of 3 or 4 days last month where the northeast was coated with weather from BOS to IAD right at the European arrival bank.

Our alternate was DTW or CLE (don't really remember) adding over an hour of reserve fuel required to be carried all the way to IAD. In reality we had plenty of fuel to make it to IAD but due to the weather and a lack of alternate airport we ducked into the Canadian Maritimes for a "gas and go."

Had the weather cleared up enough at an airport closer to IAD we would have changed the alternate to ORF or RIC and been legal to continue to IAD. Hope that explains a bit of why we do what we do!