A B737 captain reported his dispatcher would not return a requested call about winds inflight becaus...

Attributes
ACN	1230086
Time
Date	201501
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Communication Systems
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240 Flight Crew Total 18000 Flight Crew Type 1000
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

I was flying to pvr and for the third of four legs. I was unable to uplink winds either on the ground or in flight. I was trying to contact dispatch to find a resolution to this problem and I requested a call me on ACARS. I made three requests within 50 minutes and got no reply. I tried to airinc dispatch using the foreign frequency and could not make contact with an operator. My concern is with our ability to communicate with dispatch while flying in north america. On descent; I received a message from a new dispatcher that the dispatchers are overwhelmed and understaffed and that they cannot respond to call me messages. I find that entirely unacceptable for a large airline to not be able to communicate to all its aircraft in flight.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 Captain reported his Dispatcher would not return a requested call about winds inflight because their carrier's dispatchers are overwhelmed and understaffed.

Narrative: I was flying to PVR and for the third of four legs. I was unable to uplink winds either on the ground or in flight. I was trying to contact Dispatch to find a resolution to this problem and I requested a CALL ME on ACARS. I made three requests within 50 minutes and got no reply. I tried to AIRINC Dispatch using the foreign frequency and could not make contact with an operator. My concern is with our ability to communicate with Dispatch while flying in North America. On descent; I received a message from a new Dispatcher that the dispatchers are overwhelmed and understaffed and that they cannot respond to CALL ME messages. I find that entirely unacceptable for a large airline to not be able to communicate to all its aircraft in flight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.

A B737 captain reported his dispatcher would not return a requested call about winds inflight because their carrier's dispatchers are overwhelmed and understaffed.