Narrative:

Flight kept low - FL280 due to light to moderate chop above; VNAV didn't recommend climb yet due to aircraft too heavy; and other aircraft above us prohibited climb to flight plan altitudes of 300/320. Got about 3000 pounds down on fuel in first several hours of 17 hour flight. Relief crew was able to climb later and reverse the fuel decrease trend; however; stronger than expected headwinds along our route made it a long flight playing catchup on fuel remaining and projected arrival fuel. Expressed our concerns to dispatch early on and advised we might not have enough re-release fuel at esbis as planned. They honored our request and re-released us at esbis with a lesser quantity by taking out the dispatch add fuel for legality to allow us to continue to vhhh. This new rerelease was not needed at esbis however; toward the end of the flight; we were instructed to enter a holding pattern at fisha on the abbey arrival to vhhh we told them immediately that we could only do one turn in the holding pattern and would then have to divert to vmmc macau. Vhhh advised us we would have to hold for 20 minutes and we responded that we could hold for only 10 minutes. We did one turn in the hold and they asked us if we were declaring minimum fuel. We replied yes that we were declaring minimum fuel. At that time we were vectored out of the holding pattern to vhhh and landed uneventfully. I have noticed a trend of flight plans that asked for us to climb when he FMC said we were too heavy to climb on more than one occasion recently.suggestion: allow for more fuel on release if able.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew on an international flight reported fuel consumption issues due to being kept at a low altitude after departure and a holding clearance at the end of the 17-hour flight. Crew declared 'Low Fuel' and landed uneventfully.

Narrative: Flight kept low - FL280 due to light to moderate chop above; VNAV didn't recommend climb yet due to aircraft too heavy; and other aircraft above us prohibited climb to flight plan altitudes of 300/320. Got about 3000 LBS down on fuel in first several hours of 17 hour flight. Relief crew was able to climb later and reverse the fuel decrease trend; however; stronger than expected headwinds along our route made it a long flight playing catchup on fuel remaining and projected arrival fuel. Expressed our concerns to Dispatch early on and advised we might not have enough re-release fuel at ESBIS as planned. They honored our request and re-released us at ESBIS with a lesser quantity by taking out the Dispatch Add fuel for legality to allow us to continue to VHHH. This new rerelease was not needed at ESBIS however; toward the end of the flight; we were instructed to enter a holding pattern at FISHA on the ABBEY arrival to VHHH we told them immediately that we could only do one turn in the holding pattern and would then have to divert to VMMC Macau. VHHH advised us we would have to hold for 20 minutes and we responded that we could hold for only 10 minutes. We did one turn in the hold and they asked us if we were declaring minimum fuel. We replied yes that we were declaring minimum fuel. At that time we were vectored out of the holding pattern to VHHH and landed uneventfully. I have noticed a trend of flight plans that asked for us to climb when he FMC said we were too heavy to climb on more than one occasion recently.Suggestion: Allow for more fuel on release if able.

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.