One problem that a lot of controllers don't understand though is that of airline routing aircraft to take advantage of weather or the lack of it. So even though you are giving an aircraft a more direct routing you wind up actually costing the company more money due to more fuel burn due to winds aloft. Then in the rest of the world there is also the issue of taking them from a cheaper ATC provider into a more expensive one <G>. There are a couple of airlines out there who gladly have an aircraft go out of the way to stay out of someone's airspace and much higher ATC fees.
regards
Scott