Narrative:

[I] arrived in operations for flight back to north america. No one was in office and phone was ringing. I answered it and was asked if fuel was ok. I replied that I had not seen the papers yet. I was asked to call his extension as soon as possible so they could fuel as soon as I looked at the papers. Talked to dispatch and both of us felt the fuel was on the light side; but gross was at mtog. Dispatcher said he would contact the station to see if the freight was going to be droped off and contact me at the plane if it did and he would add more fuel. We discussed the possibility of a fuel stop if we had any kind of fuel bust due to wind/altitude/speed/route. I called the extension requested and said that the fuel may be ok but dispatch would be talking to them. After review with the 2 first officers I went to the computer to sign the release. I found it was already signed off with my name; etc. Approving the fuel load. I had not given any of that information; with the exception of saying that the fuel maybe subject to change after dispatch talks to them; to anyone nor signed a station copy of the release. There was no one; other than my crew; present in the office at anytime. (I have heard rumors that this station has been signing off the releases before captains arrive so they can fuel the aircraft early if they think it looks good to them.) when we arrived at the aircraft there was an ACARS message from dispatch saying the freight had fallen off by 10;000 pounds. I agreed with dispatch to add 6;000 pounds (which; as a side note; due to low crossing altitude and off airspeed assigned by oceanic control plus wind bust; was all burnt and then some; without the additional fuel we would have made a fuel stop.) someone in operations sent out a person twice to see why we were adding fuel; and then requested the captain (me) contact him on the radio to explain why I was adding fuel. This was an oblivious attempt to discourage the adding of fuel after the station had fueled the airplane. All stations should understand that the practice of adding fuel late is not usual and we do not do it for grins. Just call the truck and fuel the aircraft! The plane was fueled in plenty of time and we sat waiting for baggage loading. We pushed 2 minutes early as I recall.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B777 Captain describes reluctance of station operations in a European airport to add extra fuel at his request; for a flight to North America. He is also amazed to find the computer release signed by someone other than himself; approving the fuel load as originally planned.

Narrative: [I] arrived in operations for flight back to North America. No one was in office and phone was ringing. I answered it and was asked if fuel was OK. I replied that I had not seen the papers yet. I was asked to call his extension ASAP so they could fuel as soon as I looked at the papers. Talked to Dispatch and both of us felt the fuel was on the light side; but gross was at MTOG. Dispatcher said he would contact the station to see if the freight was going to be droped off and contact me at the plane if it did and he would add more fuel. We discussed the possibility of a fuel stop if we had any kind of fuel bust due to wind/altitude/speed/route. I called the extension requested and said that the fuel may be OK but Dispatch would be talking to them. After review with the 2 first officers I went to the computer to sign the release. I found it was already signed off with my name; etc. approving the fuel load. I had not given any of that information; with the exception of saying that the fuel maybe subject to change after Dispatch talks to them; to anyone nor signed a station copy of the release. There was no one; other than my crew; present in the office at anytime. (I have heard rumors that this station has been signing off the releases before captains arrive so they can fuel the aircraft early if they think it looks good to them.) When we arrived at the aircraft there was an ACARS message from Dispatch saying the freight had fallen off by 10;000 LBS. I agreed with Dispatch to add 6;000 LBS (which; as a side note; due to low crossing altitude and off airspeed assigned by Oceanic Control plus wind bust; was all burnt and then some; without the additional fuel we would have made a fuel stop.) Someone in operations sent out a person twice to see why we were adding fuel; and then requested the Captain (me) contact him on the radio to explain why I was adding fuel. This was an oblivious attempt to discourage the adding of fuel after the station had fueled the airplane. All stations should understand that the practice of adding fuel late is not usual and we do not do it for grins. Just call the truck and fuel the aircraft! The plane was fueled in plenty of time and we sat waiting for baggage loading. We pushed 2 minutes early as I recall.

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.