An aircraft with cpdlc received a clearance direct a waypoint not on the original route; but after a...

Narrative:

Proceeding direct to enlon intersection with clearance thereafter on UL602. Logged on to london center on cpdlc. Received message on cpdlc: 'cleared to nateb via route clearance; rest of route unchanged.' I accepted the clearance and pressed load to load the route. The loaded route had us going to tendo intersection then on to nateb. First officer noticed this and advised me that the clearance was to nateb. I agreed and we entered direct to nateb. [A few minutes later] london advised us that we were cleared to tendo then nateb. I responded that our cpdlc clearance had us direct to nateb. We were then cleared direct to nateb. No where in the body of the cpdlc message did it mention tendo intersection. Is the prompted loaded route the correct clearance or should the message from london have included tendo in its description? Our training has not addressed any procedure regarding the load function on the ATC page in regards to the clearance.; i.e. When the load button is pressed; is that routing your actual clearance? On a related subject; the online cpdlc tutorial only works with a windows computer and not on my mac. Very frustrating.I suggest better cpdlc training.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An aircraft with CPDLC received a clearance direct a waypoint not on the original route; but after accepting the clearance; ATC asked them to verify they were going to a bypassed flight plan waypoint which confused the crew.

Narrative: Proceeding direct to ENLON Intersection with clearance thereafter on UL602. Logged on to London Center on CPDLC. Received message on CPDLC: 'Cleared to NATEB via route clearance; rest of route unchanged.' I accepted the clearance and pressed load to load the route. The loaded route had us going to TENDO Intersection then on to NATEB. First Officer noticed this and advised me that the clearance was to NATEB. I agreed and we entered direct to NATEB. [A few minutes later] London advised us that we were cleared to TENDO then NATEB. I responded that our CPDLC clearance had us direct to NATEB. We were then cleared direct to NATEB. No where in the body of the CPDLC message did it mention TENDO intersection. Is the prompted loaded route the correct clearance or should the message from London have included TENDO in its description? Our training has not addressed any procedure regarding the load function on the ATC page in regards to the clearance.; i.e. When the load button is pressed; is that routing your actual clearance? On a related subject; the online CPDLC tutorial only works with a Windows computer and not on my Mac. Very frustrating.I suggest better CPDLC training.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1124933
Time
Date	201310
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	EGTT.ARTCC
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Widebody Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	FMS/FMC
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

An aircraft with cpdlc received a clearance direct a waypoint not on the original route; but after accepting the clearance; ATC asked them to verify they were going to a bypassed flight plan waypoint which confused the crew.