"As far as cruise I have been looking at winds and such and many times we are legal and able to go up 2K and many times 4K feet with a lower fuel burn and many times the winds aren't much different and we even go faster. This is something that all pilots look at (well most), but my issue is why does dispatch/the company not look at this in the planning process. "


2 reasons. Our SOC has always been stuck in the saab era, even tho we havent had them in 6 years. Hence going to MEM-HSV at 14000 when you could easily do mid 20's and burn less fuel and get your true airspeed up.
reason 2...they give you whatever the computer spits out, with no human thought process involved.