Narrative:

Our flight was delayed about four hours that night with maintenance; aircraft swap; then another flight cancellation whose passengers were boarded on our flight. There was a shift change in dispatch. I feel the new dispatcher was not briefed on all of the delays nor weather that was on our planned route. I requested new payload numbers for fuel burn since we were picking up the [canceled flight's] passengers and luggage. He advised me to wait till final numbers were given to him before we push off the gate to see if we needed more fuel. He advised that the new payload was good and we could leave the gate. During taxi it occurred to me that earlier reports that a system of severe turbulence was forecast to move north towards our route and; since we were four hours late; we were concerned. It sounded like he was not aware of this and said to stand by. He came back with just a forecast of severe turbulence. As we were getting deiced; he sent us an ACARS message of PIREP reports for severe turbulence on our route. [Later] he said we cannot go. Thank goodness we asked about this turbulence during our taxi because I do believe we would have departed into known severe turbulence without his knowledge. He also advised us that he was given wrong payload numbers (heavier by 8;000 pounds). We would still have to return to the gate for more fuel. My question in all of this is how well are the dispatchers briefing with each other during shift changes. This night there was a major storm on the coast; maintenance delay on original aircraft; aircraft swap; loading issues; and crew legalities which; because of poor coordination and decision making; meant the flight had to be canceled due to crew legalities.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A330 Captain reported he was concerned his Dispatcher was not properly aware of changing weather conditions when their flight was delayed.

Narrative: Our flight was delayed about four hours that night with maintenance; aircraft swap; then another flight cancellation whose passengers were boarded on our flight. There was a shift change in Dispatch. I feel the new Dispatcher was not briefed on all of the delays nor weather that was on our planned route. I requested new payload numbers for fuel burn since we were picking up the [canceled flight's] passengers and luggage. He advised me to wait till final numbers were given to him before we push off the gate to see if we needed more fuel. He advised that the new payload was good and we could leave the gate. During taxi it occurred to me that earlier reports that a system of severe turbulence was forecast to move north towards our route and; since we were four hours late; we were concerned. It sounded like he was not aware of this and said to stand by. He came back with just a forecast of severe turbulence. As we were getting deiced; he sent us an ACARS message of PIREP reports for severe turbulence on our route. [Later] he said we cannot go. Thank goodness we asked about this turbulence during our taxi because I do believe we would have departed into known severe turbulence without his knowledge. He also advised us that he was given wrong payload numbers (heavier by 8;000 LBS). We would still have to return to the gate for more fuel. My question in all of this is how well are the Dispatchers briefing with each other during shift changes. This night there was a major storm on the coast; maintenance delay on original aircraft; aircraft swap; loading issues; and crew legalities which; because of poor coordination and decision making; meant the flight had to be canceled due to crew legalities.

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.