Narrative:

At this airport (kewr) and in this aircraft we receive our departure clearance via cpdlc. During my preflight; I loaded the FMC with the route we were given on our release paperwork (PORTT3 departure SID). Our release had the following FMS route: kewr biggy ptw J48 byrdd J230 saame stevy hvq. When it came time to log on to the cpdlc; the captain and I received the following dcl: cleared route clearance origin: kewr destination: ZZZ +load new route to ZZZ+ EWR2; climb via SID exc maintenance 2500FT expect FL340 10 min aft dp; dpfrq 119.2 ; ctc ground 121.8 for taxi when we saw that this was a change; I manually changed the SID to the EWR2 off of runway 22R. I did not select the load prompt as I did not see any other change to our clearance. I believed our clearance was now the EWR2 (flown in LNAV); and our first fix was still biggy then ptw; etc. The captain and I agreed on this. I printed the cpdlc clearance; folded it and laid it on the center console. After takeoff; we were handed off to departure control. He cleared us to fly directly to a fix which neither the captain nor I saw on our route. He said 'don't you have the parke J6' on your routing. We said negative; we have biggy ptw J48. He then just told us to fly a heading. He came back a short time after that and told us to fly directly to lrp and join J6 and expect a further clearance later. He did come back shortly thereafter; and told us to fly J6; then the arrival. There was no further mention of the mix up and we proceeded without further incident. We obviously knew we had been expecting something different than the controller had been; so I picked up the 'printed' copy of the cpdlc clearance we had received; and on it was also the following: parke J6 note that this was not on the original cpdlc clearance we looked at on the FMC. I don't know if it had been truncated off due to space; or it had been inadvertently left off or what; but we both went back and looked and noticed this. That was why we thought the only 'change' to our clearance was to the EWR2; but to the same fixes as we originally had on our paperwork. Contributing factors to this confusing situation are numerous. One; I now know that I am supposed to select the 'load' prompt when we have a change to our routing. I had mistakenly done the 'manual' change because it does say to manually change the SID and runway in the cpdlc memo we are to follow in our [procedure]. I seem to remember at one time or other we were specifically instructed not to select the automatic 'load' prompt when accepting a cpdlc clearance; but I may be mistaken. This is obviously now not our procedure. I also believe that the method we are transitioning into [with regard to] getting our clearances via cpdlc is very confusing. The wording we receive on the FMC is not intuitive and the overall procedure; I believe; is very convoluted. That; and the fact that we now receive our clearances in several different ways; at different airports; and in different airplanes all lead to higher chances of mistakes. This particular occurrence would also not have occurred had the new routing actually been shown on the FMC screen when getting our cpdlc instead of just on the printed version.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier flight crew reported receiving a revised CPDLC than entered it manually rather than by selecting the load prompt.

Narrative: At this airport (KEWR) and in this aircraft we receive our departure clearance via CPDLC. During my preflight; I loaded the FMC with the route we were given on our release paperwork (PORTT3 Departure SID). Our release had the following FMS ROUTE: KEWR BIGGY PTW J48 BYRDD J230 SAAME STEVY HVQ. When it came time to log on to the CPDLC; the Captain and I received the following DCL: CLEARED ROUTE CLEARANCE ORIGIN: KEWR DEST: ZZZ +LOAD NEW RTE TO ZZZ+ EWR2; CLB VIA SID EXC MAINT 2500FT EXPECT FL340 10 MIN AFT DP; DPFRQ 119.2 ; CTC GROUND 121.8 FOR TAXI When we saw that this was a change; I manually changed the SID to the EWR2 off of RWY 22R. I did not select the load prompt as I did not see any other change to our clearance. I believed our clearance was now the EWR2 (flown in LNAV); and our first fix was still BIGGY then PTW; etc. The Captain and I agreed on this. I printed the CPDLC clearance; folded it and laid it on the center console. After takeoff; we were handed off to DEP Control. He cleared us to fly directly to a fix which neither the Captain nor I saw on our route. He said 'don't you have the Parke J6' on your routing. We said negative; we have BIGGY PTW J48. He then just told us to fly a heading. He came back a short time after that and told us to fly directly to LRP and join J6 and expect a further clearance later. He did come back shortly thereafter; and told us to fly J6; then the arrival. There was no further mention of the mix up and we proceeded without further incident. We obviously knew we had been expecting something different than the controller had been; so I picked up the 'printed' copy of the CPDLC clearance we had received; and on it was also the following: PARKE J6 Note that this was NOT on the original CPDLC clearance we looked at on the FMC. I don't know if it had been truncated off due to space; or it had been inadvertently left off or what; but we both went back and looked and noticed this. That was why we thought the only 'change' to our clearance was to the EWR2; but to the same fixes as we originally had on our paperwork. Contributing factors to this confusing situation are numerous. One; I now know that I am supposed to select the 'load' prompt when we have a change to our routing. I had mistakenly done the 'manual' change because it does say to manually change the SID and runway in the CPDLC memo we are to follow in our [procedure]. I seem to remember at one time or other we were specifically instructed NOT to select the automatic 'load' prompt when accepting a CPDLC clearance; but I may be mistaken. This is obviously now not our procedure. I also believe that the method we are transitioning into [with regard to] getting our clearances via CPDLC is very confusing. The wording we receive on the FMC is not intuitive and the overall procedure; I believe; is very convoluted. That; and the fact that we now receive our clearances in several different ways; at different airports; and in different airplanes all lead to higher chances of mistakes. This particular occurrence would also not have occurred had the new routing actually been shown on the FMC screen when getting our CPDLC instead of just on the printed version.

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.