055166k,
I'm feeling a bit sheepish about my tirade now!
But, just to be sure we don't misunderstand eachother......
I don't mean to suggest that a controller should not give priority or make a little extra effort now and then for a particular flight. Far from it! It is that sort of flexibility that keeps the wheels turning! What I object to is pilots attempting to obtain shortcuts and/or other assistance by referring to irrelevant detail that is ultimately designed to make you (the ATC guy) give them what they want because you feel sorry for them.
If I simply ask "request direct XYZ" and it's available, I would expect you to approve it. If it's not available for whatever reason (traffic, workload, etc), I expect you to say "negative" or whatever. But I would not expect you to give me a direct routing where you otherwise wouldn't simpy because I told you I was running late or my passengers think they left their respective irons on at home.
If two aircraft were flying a similar route, but only one could feasably be given a direct routing, I would expect you to give it to whichever one asks first, not simply to the guy who is furthest behind schedule. Therefore, the lateness of my flight is entirely irrelevant, and me telling you I'm late, is a display of my lack of understanding of the system and my feeling that you are a lower intelligence being who can be pushed into doing something you wouldn't otherwise do by my marvellous and creative vocabulary.
Does anyone think differentlt to that? Do you?
Cheers!
CP