Narrative:

We departed northeast and initially climbed to FL320. We were scheduled to further climb to FL360. We experienced moderate turbulence and requested FL280. The controller advised FL300 and above has bad ride and told us FL280 should be a good ride. When we were inflight at FL280; the landing fuel showed 3;300 throughout the most of the flight; but when we were given a new arrival with the opposite direction runway to land; the landing fuel at showed 2;600 to 2;700 as we were descending through 16;000 and throughout the approach. The reserve fuel per flight release was 2;674. At this time we knew there was a possibility of landing below the required reserve fuel; but we were already in downwind; making a normal approach; so decided to land. Also; there was a chance that we could still land at or slight above the reserve fuel; so no fuel advisory was given to the ATC.we landed at 2;540 (134 below the reserve fuel). After we parked the plane and after the APU shut down; the fuel at the gate showed 2;440. The extra fuel on the release for this flight was 746.although the dispatchers make their best efforts to accurately estimate the fuel consumption for the flight; there are many factors that can influence us to use more fuel than calculated. Turbulence and icing conditions at the planned altitude will make us fly at an altitude significantly lower than planned. Ts (thunderstorms) will make us deviate from the planned route; the air traffic flow; especially in the east coast; will make us fly at a lower than planned altitude for a long time. Also; the change in the wind condition will make us shoot the arrival and the approach which is to the completely opposite side of the planned approach. Many flights for many reasons simply do not go as ideally planned.I think it would be safer to plan the flight release with the takeoff and landing towards the furthest possible directions. Also; more extra fuel would be nice. According to the flight release; the weight of extra 1;000 pounds of fuel would use only extra 95 pounds. We could have used some more of the extra fuel today.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-170 Captain reported landing with less than required reserve fuel due to routing change and lower enroute altitude because of turbulence.

Narrative: We departed northeast and initially climbed to FL320. We were scheduled to further climb to FL360. We experienced moderate turbulence and requested FL280. The controller advised FL300 and above has bad ride and told us FL280 should be a good ride. When we were inflight at FL280; the landing fuel showed 3;300 throughout the most of the flight; but when we were given a new arrival with the opposite direction runway to land; the landing fuel at showed 2;600 to 2;700 as we were descending through 16;000 and throughout the approach. The RESERVE FUEL per flight release was 2;674. At this time we knew there was a possibility of landing below the required reserve fuel; but we were already in downwind; making a normal approach; so decided to land. Also; there was a chance that we could still land at or slight above the reserve fuel; so no fuel advisory was given to the ATC.We landed at 2;540 (134 below the RESERVE FUEL). After we parked the plane and after the APU shut down; the fuel at the gate showed 2;440. The extra fuel on the release for this flight was 746.Although the dispatchers make their best efforts to accurately estimate the fuel consumption for the flight; there are many factors that can influence us to use more fuel than calculated. Turbulence and icing conditions at the planned altitude will make us fly at an altitude significantly lower than planned. TS (Thunderstorms) will make us deviate from the planned route; the air traffic flow; especially in the east coast; will make us fly at a lower than planned altitude for a long time. Also; the change in the wind condition will make us shoot the arrival and the approach which is to the completely opposite side of the planned approach. Many flights for many reasons simply do not go as ideally planned.I think it would be safer to plan the flight release with the takeoff and landing towards the furthest possible directions. Also; more extra fuel would be nice. According to the flight release; the weight of extra 1;000 pounds of fuel would use only extra 95 pounds. We could have used some more of the extra fuel today.

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.