Narrative:

While in cruise to slc; ZLA center gave us a clearance to proceed 'direct bryce canyon and the [xxx] arrival to salt lake.' as pilot monitoring; I was operating the radios and read back to ATC; 'ok; cleared via direct bryce canyon and the arrival to salt lake.' I was unsure that ATC had actually stated the name of the arrival or not; so I had just figured they meant to clear us direct to bce (bryce canyon) and then proceed with the arrival we received in our flight plan pre departure clearance; which was the DELTA5. ATC did not respond to my readback with any clarification. I programmed the FMS for us to proceed direct to bce; which gave us a very minor course 'cut'; the pilot flying verified it; and I executed the mod. About 1/2 way between bce and dta (delta) we were called by ATC (now ZLC center); 'XXX are you flying the quenn arrival into slc.' I responded; 'negative; we are on the delta arrival.' ATC corrected us; 'uh; you were supposed to do the quenn arrival after bryce canyon.' I apologized for the error; and ATC gave us a course correction to join the quenn arrival. The remainder of the flight was uneventful. The event/nav error occurred because I did not verify the ATC clearance appropriately when I thought I may have mis-heard it. Contributing to this error; we had a jumpseater and we were conversing when ZLA's re-route clearance had been given. Furthermore; when I did not readback the re-route properly to ZLA; the controller did not correct me.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A distracted air carrier Captain reported giving ZLA an incomplete clearance readback to SLC and flying the PDC arrival. After a track deviation; ZLC correct the arrival and crew acknowledged an error.

Narrative: While in cruise to SLC; ZLA Center gave us a clearance to proceed 'direct Bryce Canyon and the [xxx] arrival to Salt Lake.' As pilot monitoring; I was operating the radios and read back to ATC; 'Ok; cleared via direct Bryce Canyon and the arrival to Salt Lake.' I was unsure that ATC had actually stated the name of the arrival or not; so I had just figured they meant to clear us direct to BCE (Bryce Canyon) and then proceed with the arrival we received in our flight plan PDC; which was the DELTA5. ATC did not respond to my readback with any clarification. I programmed the FMS for us to proceed direct to BCE; which gave us a very minor course 'cut'; the pilot flying verified it; and I executed the mod. About 1/2 way between BCE and DTA (Delta) we were called by ATC (now ZLC Center); 'XXX are you flying the QUENN arrival into SLC.' I responded; 'Negative; we are on the DELTA arrival.' ATC corrected us; 'Uh; you were supposed to do the QUENN arrival after Bryce Canyon.' I apologized for the error; and ATC gave us a course correction to join the QUENN arrival. The remainder of the flight was uneventful. The event/nav error occurred because I did not verify the ATC clearance appropriately when I thought I may have mis-heard it. Contributing to this error; we had a jumpseater and we were conversing when ZLA's re-route clearance had been given. Furthermore; when I did not readback the re-route properly to ZLA; the controller did not correct me.

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.