It seems that everyone has a different opinion on how to operate their flight. Personally, I think "Flychicaga" has it right. He's the only one that considered the passenger in his explanation. Guys, like it or not, we are in the customer service business. And, a lot of pilots seem to forget that sometimes. It would be wonderful if we could fly our profiles all the time, save fuel, engine wear and tear, increase trip values, make ATC happy, etc. But that does not always work. If you save money on fuel, but give your passengers a bumpy ride that arrives late, you have made a bad decission. We are trained to make decisions continuously to provide safe, reliable service.
Always flying fast to arrive 30 minutes early I agree makes no sense, however flying fast once in a while for the commuting pilot that needs to catch the last flight home, is justified. If you need to fly 4000 feet lower, and burn an additional 800pph fuel, but avoid some occassional mdt turbulence above, then that is justified. Taxing on one engine saves fuel, but if you are not getting enough air out of that one engine to run the packs, a one hour taxi on a hot day will most likely upset your passengers. On a certain route, if ATC tries to give you a short cut which would make you 20 minutes early (which would lower your trip values), but you continuously deny it stating it is for planning/performance reasons (actually not wanting to lower your trp values), and he vectors you 20 times, now making you 20 minutes late, then you made a bad decision, and you should have just taken the short cut. If you are flying faster, buring extra fuel, because you think it is cool to see MMO on the A/I all the time, then you are just wasting money at the company's expense, and taking money out of your own pocket. Releasing the parking break with no rampers in sight saying "cha ching" may put extra money in your pocket, but then the rampers think they can expect this from the pilots, so they continue to do their jobs half a$$ed knowing they will still get an "on time" for the departure. When actually you are leaving late, most likely arriving late, and upsetting the passengers. Personally, I think that is a foolish, unsafe practice.
There are many more examples why or why not to fly the planned profile, or normal procedures. Generally they work, but occassionally they need to be adapted to fit the situation. Bottom line is the customer. I don't believe any company thinks that fuel savings is so important to the extent that they would sacrifice customer serrvice for it. The pilots' job is to make the decissions neccessary to provide safe reliable service and maximize customer service, but not at the extra expense of the company or employee.
That's why we get paid the big bucks
