Originally Posted by freshairborne

Notwithstanding AD's post above, there's really no new policy here. It has always cost fuel to carry fuel. What's new, within the past several years, is management implementing an ongoing policy called Operational Efficiency. It started with a day at the Denver training center for all pilots, and it was designed to enlighten us as to ways to sign off on a flight with less fuel than was our norm. It was based on the fact that supposedly, United flights landed with more fuel, measured in time until exhaustion, than other carriers' flights, with a comparison of city pairs, time of day, week, month, year, etc.

It was designed to change our decision-making process, and land with less fuel.FAB