Originally Posted by
aibal
When spacing issues arise one is often asked to sidestep to the parallel in EWR. The times this has happened to me the other airplane has configured while I haven't yet slowed due to assigned speed. Fly at EWR long enough and this will make sense to you.
"Often" may be a bit of an overstatement. "occasionally" or "sometimes" or "has" happened is closer to the truth. Newark is a delicate system, they don't like to mess with routine.