What I describe is what’s written in the OM(A) of a 550 airplane airline. That should be good enough a reason for you to not be so defensive about it. This is how it’s done where I work now. When GOPS pre-fuel the airplane for us they round up to the nearest 100Kg and add 100Kg on top of that to make sure we never take off with less than take off fuel in case of having used more fuel on the ground as calculated by LIDO (which is not what contingency is for). Simple as that. In most cases we’ll add fuel on top of that anyway.
And of course in reserves we enter the sum of final reserve+alternate. Why would that be different?
For ground operations we have our taxi fuel. This is a figure that varies and it’s calculated by LIDO based on statistics. In some airports it’s a very confortable figure (300Kg out of EIDW) or a bit tight (117Kg in LEVC).
Maybe “using reserve fuel” is an exaggeration but I do remember situations where it could have happened (CTOT expired at the holding point and having to wait there an undefined amount of time).
I’m joining another airline in April. If things are different there I’ll make sure to describe it to you for approval.