Maybe I should've put in my post earlier that we do check who the restricting centre is or where the restriction lies. Takes about 2 minutes with CFMU in Brussels.
Thanks for confirming that.
One other issue which does not happen very often but on short sectors, we may have planned at a lower (not very efficient level) and we actually don't want a better level because the reduction in fuel burn combined with a better tail wind could mean that we have to hold and burn off fuel at destination because we got airbourne planning on a max landing weight arrival.
However, since you will not know that it is always nice to be offered a better level or even a short-cut.
Regards,
DFC