Nearly every Ryanair flight these days askes for a cruising level which is different to that filed. Sometimes this is only a couple of thousand feet, but sometimes it is up to 10000ft different. Often the filed cruising level may be FL270 to avoid a high level slot restriction but the crew ask for FL370 on the frequency. They are often given climb as ATCOs try to help. On more than one occasion this has led to an overload of a sector further along the route which had not included the flight at its new level in its traffic volume.
So eyeinthesky please educate me, are you saying RYR are the only operator that does this? There are of course occasions where we might ask for a different level from the filed one due to changes from the planned weight and/or turbulence for example. As a professional pilot I would generally always ask for what I consider is the best FL irrespective of the filed level. Of course I understand that the requested level will not always be available.
This has understandably rattled a few cages.