The Captain of the aircraft is responsible for the conduct of the flight and I can think of no earthly reason why he should have to contact his airline in this matter. Would you expect a pilot to contact his airline for permission to fly through weather? Is he supposed to ask for permission to fly alongside other traffic on a parallel runway?
The situation in question has occurred before and may well happen again. I seems to me that the controller used initiative and the pilot agreed and there was no safety issue. End of story.