I am reminded of the time in the early seventies when Frankfurt ATC were working to rule, creating huge delays. BEA and Panam shuttled back and forth to Berlin. Calls for start clearance to FRA ground resulted in replies such as "you are number seventy in the sequence". Shortly we realised that Panam were calling for start up as soon as they had touched down thus gaining a few places. Not to be beaten Bealine in the Metro hold with an EAT of one hour called Ground for start up to be asked "are your doors closed and passengers seated?" With hand on heart he replied "affirmative" so was allocated a start position in the sequence. When eventually he landed, taxied to the stand next to Panam, and loaded the pax by this time his sequence time came up so the doors were closed and off he went, leaving Panam fuming. Needless to say this scheme couldn't last for long but was fun whilst it did.