Narrative:

Due to flight planning from wsi and dispatch we were aware of moderate turbulence on our route. I notified the flight attendants and told them to remain seated until we called. I also briefed them that the seatbelt sign would be on for at least an hour after takeoff. The flight attendants made an announcement to the passengers to use the restroom before we close the door due to turbulence and there would be at least an hour after takeoff before it would be safe to get up. Shortly after making a position report for eloyi we received a SELCAL. We were to standby to copy SIGMET. Another aircraft joined the frequency. As the SIGMET was read we entered into moderate turbulence. We tried to enter the 5 lat/long coordinates into the FMC for reference. The turbulence intensity made it physically difficult to type. We experienced intermittent severe turbulence before able to verify the area of the SIGMET. We experienced +/-200 feet; +/-20 knots; 30 degree bank angles and the autopilot kicked off. We tried to contact radio but were unable to get a break to talk on [the] frequency. We were trying to find out how long the turbulence was going to last. We discussed briefly to offset on the track; [advise ATC] and descend below the flight level of which the SIGMET of severe turbulence was given; FL250. We were aware of our fuel situation and that we would need to return back to hawaii if we did [descend] to 8000 feet. We were forecast to have 1000 pounds of extra fuel at the critical point. We were in continuous moderate turbulence with intermittent severe for 10 minutes. The information from radio about the SIGMET is in very poor format for aircraft that are entering or already in the area of severe turbulence. In our case it was of no use to have coordinates that were in an area around us. Better information would have been 'you are entering the area of severe turbulence from FL250-FL380 for the next 50 miles.' no one was hurt but not for any help from arinc.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reported encountering moderate to severe turbulence on a trans-Pacific flight.

Narrative: Due to flight planning from WSI and dispatch we were aware of moderate turbulence on our route. I notified the flight attendants and told them to remain seated until we called. I also briefed them that the seatbelt sign would be on for at least an hour after takeoff. The flight attendants made an announcement to the passengers to use the restroom before we close the door due to turbulence and there would be at least an hour after takeoff before it would be safe to get up. Shortly after making a position report for ELOYI we received a SELCAL. We were to standby to copy SIGMET. Another aircraft joined the frequency. As the SIGMET was read we entered into moderate turbulence. We tried to enter the 5 lat/long coordinates into the FMC for reference. The turbulence intensity made it physically difficult to type. We experienced intermittent severe turbulence before able to verify the area of the SIGMET. We experienced +/-200 feet; +/-20 knots; 30 degree bank angles and the autopilot kicked off. We tried to contact Radio but were unable to get a break to talk on [the] frequency. We were trying to find out how long the turbulence was going to last. We discussed briefly to offset on the track; [advise ATC] and descend below the flight level of which the SIGMET of severe turbulence was given; FL250. We were aware of our fuel situation and that we would need to return back to Hawaii if we did [descend] to 8000 feet. We were forecast to have 1000 pounds of extra fuel at the critical point. We were in continuous moderate turbulence with intermittent severe for 10 minutes. The information from Radio about the SIGMET is in very poor format for aircraft that are entering or already in the area of severe turbulence. In our case it was of no use to have coordinates that were in an area around us. Better information would have been 'you are entering the area of severe turbulence from FL250-FL380 for the next 50 miles.' No one was hurt but not for any help from ARINC.

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.