B737 first officer reported ATC excessive use of vectors for sequencing; rather than holding; result...

Narrative:

We were inbound to boston and were alerted that they were holding. We were originally cleared to hold at ondec at 30000 feet. Later we descended in holding to 24000 feet. We had not done an entire turn in holding at ondec; and [we] were instructed to descend and proceed to autum and join the JFUND2 arrival; runway 22L transition. We were handed off to approach control. Before we got to winta; we were put on a 070 heading; and we were expecting vectors to final just outside of noley (12.9 DME ILS 22L). Instead; we were turned 180 degrees around to a heading of 250. We were descended; and given headings of 270; 180; then finally vectored to a right downwind for runway 22L. If we had proceeded to the runway when we were on the original 070 heading we would have landed with 16;200 lbs. Of fuel. Instead; we landed with 14;300 lbs. The problem is the vectoring burned an additional 1900 pounds of fuel. It need not have. Controllers seem scared to have us fly a holding pattern because it will affect their statistics. In this case; we were released from holding about 20 minutes too soon. We could have held higher and not burned anywhere near the 1900 pounds we burned at low altitude. The low altitude vectoring has happened to me 3 times in the last 30 days arriving in boston. But; boston is not the only place this happens. It's happening more and more. Controllers need to know that when we are in a holding pattern we can plan our fuel; develop a bingo; and alert ATC when we need to divert. We can't do that when we are being randomly vectored. We have no idea how far out we will be vectored. Add to that; we are usually at low (pattern) altitude; burning more fuel. As the controllers get more and more backed up; they slow us down; requiring us to extend the flaps; burning even more fuel! It's very frustrating for us as pilots.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 First Officer reported ATC excessive use of vectors for sequencing; rather than holding; resulted in great and unnecessary increase in fuel burn and workload.

Narrative: We were inbound to Boston and were alerted that they were holding. We were originally cleared to hold at ONDEC at 30000 feet. Later we descended in holding to 24000 feet. We had not done an entire turn in holding at ONDEC; and [we] were instructed to descend and proceed to AUTUM and join the JFUND2 arrival; Runway 22L transition. We were handed off to approach control. Before we got to WINTA; we were put on a 070 heading; and we were expecting vectors to final just outside of NOLEY (12.9 DME ILS 22L). Instead; we were turned 180 degrees around to a heading of 250. We were descended; and given headings of 270; 180; then finally vectored to a right downwind for runway 22L. If we had proceeded to the runway when we were on the original 070 heading we would have landed with 16;200 lbs. of fuel. Instead; we landed with 14;300 lbs. The problem is the vectoring burned an additional 1900 pounds of fuel. It need not have. Controllers seem scared to have us fly a holding pattern because it will affect their statistics. In this case; we were released from holding about 20 minutes too soon. We could have held higher and not burned anywhere near the 1900 pounds we burned at low altitude. The low altitude vectoring has happened to me 3 times in the last 30 days arriving in Boston. But; Boston is not the only place this happens. It's happening more and more. Controllers need to know that when we are in a holding pattern we can plan our fuel; develop a bingo; and alert ATC when we need to divert. We can't do that when we are being randomly vectored. We have no idea how far out we will be vectored. Add to that; we are usually at low (pattern) altitude; burning more fuel. As the controllers get more and more backed up; they slow us down; requiring us to extend the flaps; burning even more fuel! It's very frustrating for us as pilots.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1532203
Time
Date	201804
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	A90.TRACON
State Reference	NH
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach Descent Final Approach
Route In Use	Vectors STAR JFUND2
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Type 6658
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue

B737 first officer reported ATC excessive use of vectors for sequencing; rather than holding; resulted in great and unnecessary increase in fuel burn and workload.