The problem is low fuel is subjective.

What pilots might feel is not enough, management feels is just right. Management, especially at AMR, is pressuring flight crews and dispatchers to load only the bare minimum amount of fuel. Dispatchers whose arrival fuel is above the status quo get focus training. Anyone who has flown for more than a couple of days in today's IFR world knows a flight never goes exactly as planned and forecasts aren't always right. How many times has ATC said expect 330 for a final instead of 370? How many times have they said maintain max forward then slow to 250 then max forward? The FARs in respect to fuel requirements are also about as safe as the current flight time/ duty time regs. They were probably written when the DC3 was the primary transport aircraft. The regs say: "Complete the flight to the first airport of intended landing, fly to the most distant alternate fly after that for 45 minutes at normal cruising speed". That might work for a 152 where the difference between idle and max power is a gallon or two per hour, but with a turbine engine that uses exponentially more fuel at takeoff, climb, and go around power than at cruise it doesn't work. I can't tell you how many times I've seen JFK as an Alternate for LGA or EWR with an extra 2 minutes and a couple of hundred extra pounds of fuel added. That is just not a realistic plan for an alternate.

Then there is the weather that requires alternates. The majority of the time you need the extra gas it has nothing to do with low visability and ceilings which require more gas per the regs. You don't need an alternate if there are thunderstorms in the area or high winds. That doesn't make much sense does it? Just last week I heard an AA 737 divert to TPA because of thunderstorms at MCO. They were forecasted to be in the area but not at the airport. The pilots said over the radio that they had no add fuel for holding or delay vectors and needed to go to TPA. It really doesn't make a lot of sense not to plan for pop up thunderstorms in FL in the spring. The closest I came to running out of gas was on a beautiful calm/clear day in ORD. ANA blew a tire on the intersection of 22R/27R and dropped the airport down to 27L only arrivals. We had no alternate because it was a beautiful day. But why didn't we have an alternate? I think in the 121 world you should always have an out. What do you do if you are going into SAN and the guy in front of you blows a tire? There aren't many civilian airports to go to big enough to handle most commercial airliners.

Bottom line I think the crew did a great job and I hope the airline realizes running planes low on fuel is NOT a SAFE way to run an airline.