Could be - it says the whole crew and that is a DAL document so I am not sure exactly who they are referring to.

Trying to play Devils advocate here I can kind of see where the company is coming from. These extensions are most likely to come during WX events etc when the dispatchers are going to be swamped.

If a dispatcher has to have a one on one conversation with multiple crews about extending the whole system may just grind to a halt. They will be plenty busy with other stuff.

Airlines today are minimally staffed in all support positions - think actual classes of ground school with human beings as instructors in an environment where you can ask a question or learn from anothers question vs a CD in your V-file.

I guess its just the nature of the beast.

Scoop