Hi Alpha Charlie.I work at Scottish and am to be found on the TMA most of the time. First off, there are no airlines that get any special treatment by any NATS atcos. I want you all off my frequency as safely and quickly as possible,and anyway no-one offers us free flights to encourage favouritism!
The DH8D has impressive performance for a prop and caught out many an atco when they were first introduced.
As has already been stated in this thread,the way area controllers treat your flight compared to approach controllers will differ a bit. For example, if you were flying to EDI on the Tweed1A star, if you are five miles ahead of a jet at Margo,you'll be number two,if you're five miles ahead at Eskdo,number one. A rough guide that would obviously depend on the prevailing traffic situation. The line can get blurred between what area and approach think and my watch at Scottish are doing liason visits to EDI at the moment which seems to be very beneficial,and may even stop hootin' moaning about us as much as he does!
Also bear in mind that from a TMA point of view that your aircraft can only provide us with the high speeds ( i stand to be corrected) in the descent between FL200 and FL90, and not in the cruise at FL200+.