Just come back from Florida, and as usual on the pond we got a flurry of WAH requests from New York ATC.
Looked at it and decided we were ABLE at 0330, and sent this back. We were then told to climb to F390 by 0308 and report level.
Two things that nark me (Maybe I'm just being oversensitive...):
1) I'd told him we were able at 0330. WHY issue a climb clearance to FL390 prior to that time??
2) The fact that we are ABLE F390 does NOT mean that we want it or that it is a desirable level. The performance of the aircraft meant that with an absolute max of FL401 we were up in coffin corner. Plus with turbulence forecast on route it is desirable to maintain a higher speed margin.
Now should I be more economical with the truth is the question? Should there be a differentiation between when we are ABLE and when it is DESIRABLE? By saying I am able higher, are ATC pushing us up to an undesirable level to allow somebody else to climb to his optimum?
IMHO there seems to be a lack of understanding on ATC's part about aircraft performance at higher levels. The same is now really prevalent with Shanwick ATC in that if we suffix an Oceanic clearance request with the MAX FL as we are supposed to, then Shanwick seem to use this as a target and nearly always stuff us up at the higher level. This happens SO often that the guys are now beginning to leave it off and the view is that it encourages them to put you at higher levels.
What's the view? On one hand I try to be as accomodating as possible on a professional level and quite often help out by moving my aircraft early to allow other aircraft to climb, but it seems that by being accomodating you can stuff yourself and your fuel plan severely. It will be a shame if it carries on along this lines and NY ATC start getting UNABLE responses to WAH reports.
