Narrative:

Center gave us a reroute off our clearance of jst and the BOJID1 arrival for convective activity in the mdt area. The new route was direct to psb etx SPUDS1 arrival. As we passed north of the original routing we could paint the weather around mdt and; although it was blocking our original route; it was not an excessive amount of thunderstorm activity at the time. We were with ny center and given radar vectors off our direct etx routing. We were at 11;000' and 250 KIAS. There was no holding being assigned to anyone and no efc's for planning. We were essentially flying a big box west of abe and south of elm ranging from approximately 80 miles from phl to about 120 miles from phl. The sector controller had given no information on the reason for the unusual extended vectors. Although we had adequate fuel for the sea-phl leg; our company is not lavish with extra fuel for dispatch. We had obviously already flown most of our trans-con flight and used most of our allotted fuel. After about 15 minutes of these vectors we were about 120 miles from phl on a 270 degree heading going away from phl at 11;000'; guzzling fuel and we were wondering what the plan was. We had already heard two flights that had been behind us allowed on in to phl. We asked the controller when we could plan on turning back in towards phl. No answer. We repeated the question. He replied that if we asked that question again; he would make sure that we were last in. We told him he was running us out of gas. He asked if we were declaring an emergency and we said negative. He said nothing else and; at a later time; vectored us back towards phl. We estimate between 3 and 6 flights that were behind us continued on in without these excessive vectors. Without this event; we would have been a few minutes early for our scheduled arrival. As it was; we were 22 minutes late on the gate. Our minimum shutdown fuel for our reserve and our bwi alternate was 7;700 lbs. We shut down with about 8;500. In my opinion; this event occurred because of limited thunderstorm activity in the area which added unexpected traffic to this ny center sector. This sector controller was not reacting well to the stress of the situation. His comment and follow on actions to 'punish' a flight by changing the arrival order is unprofessional and unconscionable. If this individual cannot handle the stress of his job; perhaps he should be moved to less stressful duties. At a minimum; he should be reminded of the importance of communication with his flights. He may have had a plan in mind but he wasn't conveying it to us and we were languishing out there; going the wrong way.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier on delay vectors for PHL with ZNY because of area weather voiced concern regarding fuel status and Controller handling; i.e. lack of communications and unclear planning.

Narrative: Center gave us a reroute off our clearance of JST and the BOJID1 arrival for convective activity in the MDT area. The new route was direct to PSB ETX SPUDS1 Arrival. As we passed north of the original routing we could paint the weather around MDT and; although it was blocking our original route; it was not an excessive amount of thunderstorm activity at the time. We were with NY Center and given radar vectors off our direct ETX routing. We were at 11;000' and 250 KIAS. There was no holding being assigned to anyone and no EFC's for planning. We were essentially flying a big box west of ABE and south of ELM ranging from approximately 80 miles from PHL to about 120 miles from PHL. The Sector Controller had given no information on the reason for the unusual extended vectors. Although we had adequate fuel for the SEA-PHL leg; our company is not lavish with extra fuel for dispatch. We had obviously already flown most of our trans-con flight and used most of our allotted fuel. After about 15 minutes of these vectors we were about 120 miles from PHL on a 270 degree heading going away from PHL at 11;000'; guzzling fuel and we were wondering what the plan was. We had already heard two flights that had been behind us allowed on in to PHL. We asked the controller when we could plan on turning back in towards PHL. No answer. We repeated the question. He replied that if we asked that question again; he would make sure that we were last in. We told him he was running us out of gas. He asked if we were declaring an emergency and we said negative. He said nothing else and; at a later time; vectored us back towards PHL. We estimate between 3 and 6 flights that were behind us continued on in without these excessive vectors. Without this event; we would have been a few minutes early for our scheduled arrival. As it was; we were 22 minutes late on the gate. Our minimum shutdown fuel for our reserve and our BWI alternate was 7;700 lbs. We shut down with about 8;500. In my opinion; this event occurred because of limited thunderstorm activity in the area which added unexpected traffic to this NY Center sector. This Sector Controller was not reacting well to the stress of the situation. His comment and follow on actions to 'punish' a flight by changing the arrival order is unprofessional and unconscionable. If this individual cannot handle the stress of his job; perhaps he should be moved to less stressful duties. At a minimum; he should be reminded of the importance of communication with his flights. He may have had a plan in mind but he wasn't conveying it to us and we were languishing out there; going the wrong way.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.