Narrative:

During a preflight call to dispatch; we were not briefed regarding a typhoon or turbulence probabilities on our route. When questioned on a runway closure at one of our intermediate airports; the dispatcher kept asserting that it was legal; insinuating that we did not need that information. The dispatcher was quite uncooperative; stating that she did not have time to discuss the weather at the enroute airports. Aren't dispatchers bound by fars to brief all weather phenomena which might affect the route of flight? Apparently; she did not think so.after departure; we discovered that we would pass within 80-100 miles of the typhoon with tops to FL550 within 250 NM of the center. I called dispatch and asked for a reroute; but was denied. The dispatcher stated that she did not think it would be wise to reroute around it at this time. I asked again a couple of hours later; but was again dissuaded. I directed the relief pilots to work on a reroute while we were on break. They finally were able to get dispatch approval for a reroute; but had to do the bulk of the work getting the routing themselves. The relief dispatcher was quite helpful; but the delay insisted upon by the releasing dispatcher; kicking the problem down the road; caused unnecessary and excessive workload for the new dispatcher and my crew.we ended up unnecessarily burning 13;000 pounds of additional fuel; much of which could have been saved had we routed around the typhoon in a more timely fashion. We were planned to land with 34.0; but landed with 21.0. Had we not added 4.0 prior to departure; we probably would have had to make a fuel stop since our destination had thunderstorms in the forecast. As it turned out; we encountered a thunderstorm and windshear on final approach. This was poor dispatch support by the releasing dispatcher in my opinion.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B747-400 Captain expressed concern over the lack of professional discipline exhibited by the Dispatcher responsible for his transpacific flight.

Narrative: During a preflight call to Dispatch; we were not briefed regarding a typhoon or turbulence probabilities on our route. When questioned on a runway closure at one of our intermediate airports; the Dispatcher kept asserting that it was legal; insinuating that we did not need that information. The Dispatcher was quite uncooperative; stating that she did not have time to discuss the weather at the enroute airports. Aren't dispatchers bound by FARs to brief all weather phenomena which might affect the route of flight? Apparently; she did not think so.After departure; we discovered that we would pass within 80-100 miles of the typhoon with tops to FL550 within 250 NM of the center. I called Dispatch and asked for a reroute; but was denied. The Dispatcher stated that she did not think it would be wise to reroute around it at this time. I asked again a couple of hours later; but was again dissuaded. I directed the relief pilots to work on a reroute while we were on break. They finally were able to get Dispatch approval for a reroute; but had to do the bulk of the work getting the routing themselves. The Relief Dispatcher was quite helpful; but the delay insisted upon by the releasing Dispatcher; kicking the problem down the road; caused unnecessary and excessive workload for the new Dispatcher and my crew.We ended up unnecessarily burning 13;000 pounds of additional fuel; much of which could have been saved had we routed around the typhoon in a more timely fashion. We were planned to land with 34.0; but landed with 21.0. Had we not added 4.0 prior to departure; we probably would have had to make a fuel stop since our destination had thunderstorms in the forecast. As it turned out; we encountered a thunderstorm and windshear on final approach. This was poor Dispatch support by the releasing Dispatcher in my opinion.

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.