Flowman,
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Others use it as a legitimate way of avoiding delay, unfortunately if the
crews are not briefed accordingly they will accept climb offered by other ATC units (who
are normally unaware of problems which may be several sectors down the line).
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I understand you have a problem with this, but don't you think this is the ATC unit's problem rather than the operator's? We regularly refile below a restriction, and I don't think a crew needs to be briefed about that particular ATC problem: if they get their CFP at FL290, they know what to expect and their fuel will be planned accordingly. If the controllers want to give them higher anyways, then why should they refuse? These things make us save money.
Furthermore: why do the AIMs we regularly receive ask the operator to fly the filed levels when this is something that can easily be imposed by the controller? This also eliminates the problem of one controller not knowing that 2 or 3 centres further there is a problem at a certain level.
I suppose I'm missing something here, but you have to admit that at first sight it's quite strange to say the least. Any comments are welcome.