Narrative:

During descent on the phlbo arrival into ewr we asked to deviate to the left for a line of weather directly below us during the descent. Ny center said unable due to phl traffic and allow a 10-15 degree deviation to the right. We could not continue descent below 10;000 ft because the controller put lga traffic into holding 1000 ft below us. Approximately abeam dylin the controller told us ewr wasn't taking anyone and gave us a 180 turn to the right and because of the lga traffic could not allow us to turn or climb until almost to dupont. We climbed back up to 15000 ft and turned south to parallel the arrival on the left side of the weather as originally requested. Once with ny approach and evaluating our options we informed ny approach that we were fuel critical now and once we turned left departing metropolitan we asked how long we would be on this heading and now for the 3rd time announced to ny approach that we were fuel critical with no reply. When we pressed the matter; approach informed us that it would be another 68 air miles before a turn to the airport so we had to decide to divert or continue and the ny approach controller now told us if we said the magic word we would get right in. Given the circumstances and approaching our FAA fuel minimum for landing we decided the best course of action was to [advised ATC] for low fuel and get the airplane safely to ewr. It is my personal opinion that better options from ny center during the deviation on descent as well as more assistance from ny approach could have kept this event from happening.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 flight crew reported a low fuel situation on arrival to EWR.

Narrative: During descent on the PHLBO arrival into EWR we asked to deviate to the left for a line of weather directly below us during the descent. NY center said unable due to PHL traffic and allow a 10-15 degree deviation to the right. We could not continue descent below 10;000 ft because the controller put LGA traffic into holding 1000 ft below us. Approximately abeam DYLIN the controller told us EWR wasn't taking anyone and gave us a 180 turn to the right and because of the LGA traffic could not allow us to turn or climb until almost to DUPONT. We climbed back up to 15000 ft and turned south to parallel the arrival on the left side of the weather as originally requested. Once with NY approach and evaluating our options we informed NY approach that we were fuel critical now and once we turned left departing METRO we asked how long we would be on this heading and now for the 3rd time announced to NY approach that we were fuel critical with no reply. When we pressed the matter; approach informed us that it would be another 68 air miles before a turn to the airport so we had to decide to divert or continue and the NY approach controller now told us if we said the magic word we would get right in. Given the circumstances and approaching our FAA fuel minimum for landing we decided the best course of action was to [advised ATC] for low fuel and get the airplane safely to EWR. It is my personal opinion that better options from NY center during the deviation on descent as well as more assistance from NY approach could have kept this event from happening.

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.