A widebody transport flight crew reported a failure to climb to an ATC cleared altitude. This deviat...

Narrative:

At FL360; in ZZZZ airspace and established cpdlc/ads. Requested and received weather (WX) deviation due to intertropical convergence zone buildups along our route of flight. Pilot flying selected heading mode on FCU to deviate around moderate cbs; we requested and received clearance to climb to FL380. The pilot flying selected 38000 in the FCU window; verbalized '380 blue' and pushed altitude knob for managed climb. The crew failed to realize that airplane did not initiate a climb; as they were busy with lateral navigation and approaching the lateral limits of their WX deviation clearance.after a while we received a 'SELCAL' from ZZZZ who asked us to confirm our altitude. At that point we realized that we were still at FL360. We received a new clearance to climb to FL380 and reported level FL380Both crew members failed to verify on FMA that the airplane was in climb or open climb. Better SOP compliance with callouts (verbalizing FMA) would have possibly caught the oversight of not selecting open climb given that we were in heading mode. Contributing factor was the WX deviation and possibly the fact that as we approached the limits of our lateral clearance; we had to request additional WX related clearances; creating a somewhat confused few minutes.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Widebody Transport flight crew reported a failure to climb to an ATC cleared altitude. This deviation was attributed to a high workload due to a weather deviation and auto flight mismanagement.

Narrative: At FL360; in ZZZZ airspace and established CPDLC/ADS. Requested and received Weather (WX) deviation due to Intertropical Convergence Zone buildups along our route of flight. Pilot flying selected HDG mode on FCU to deviate around moderate CBs; we requested and received clearance to climb to FL380. The Pilot flying selected 38000 in the FCU window; verbalized '380 blue' and pushed ALT knob for managed climb. The crew failed to realize that airplane did not initiate a climb; as they were busy with lateral navigation and approaching the lateral limits of their WX deviation clearance.After a while we received a 'SELCAL' from ZZZZ who asked us to confirm our altitude. At that point we realized that we were still at FL360. We received a new clearance to climb to FL380 and reported level FL380Both crew members failed to verify on FMA that the airplane was in CLIMB or OPEN CLB. Better SOP compliance with callouts (verbalizing FMA) would have possibly caught the oversight of not selecting OPEN CLB given that we were in HDG mode. Contributing factor was the WX deviation and possibly the fact that as we approached the limits of our lateral clearance; we had to request additional WX related clearances; creating a somewhat confused few minutes.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1316648
Time
Date	201512
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	Mixed
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Widebody Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Oceanic
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

A widebody transport flight crew reported a failure to climb to an ATC cleared altitude. This deviation was attributed to a high workload due to a weather deviation and auto flight mismanagement.