I set up a low-altidude IFR plan (DC-6 tutorial fliaght 1) from KPDX to KSEA, departure direct to BTG, then ALDER, CIDUG, arrival direct, approach ILS34L. I set the cruise altitude in the navlog to 8000 (tried to left the default 10100 too), click the fly now button and after the take off ATC requests me to climb to FL180.
Is this a bug or there is a valid reason for this happening?
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do you think it is related to this specific aircraft? I’ll make a test later…
I’ve also found this to happen in the DC-6, although I have very limited time so not been able to check if this is specific to the aircraft or sim in general
Uhm… not at home now, I’ll surely check
I had exactly the same yesterday evening. Did a flightplan with the MSFS flightplanner, reduced the suggested altitude down from 24000 to 12000 and when I was climbing out, ATC told me nevertheless to climb to those 24000ft. Even more “funny”, when I then requested a decrease of flightlevel by 3000ft, ATC did not assign me 21000ft but 9000ft instead, so correctly calculating it down from 12000ft. Only to instantly tell me to again climb to 24000ft and then descend to 9000ft.
A total mess, this ATC is as bad as it was 15 years ago in FSX, so it seems that besides text-to-speech, ATC was not further developed a notch, this is one of the most disappointing things of MSFS to be honest…
I’ve experimented with this ‘bug’ a little bit and I think it’s dependent on the route / country.
Sometimes they do respect the altitude requested, and sometimes they don’t. Apart from being badly implemented in the UI, it might have something to do with certain waypoints having restrictions.
exactly the same to me too 
maybe it is the case to file a bug report, but I ask someone with a better skills in english speking to do that
Maybe it’s fixed now, but in the past whenever I requested a lower altitude, ATC would always make me climb back to my originally requested altitude before arriving at the initial approach fix for my destination airport.
Nah, even in perfect English I don’t think this will be fixed soon. They’re too busy with the graphical stuff. All this broken user interface stuff has been broken for months. They know… unless they’re flying in X-Plane… 
Had exact the same experience. Lowered in the navlog the altitude from 8000 to 5000. Once airborn ATC cleared me to FL 230 (Piper Arrow III). Requesting lower altitudes did exactly as you described. ATC is indeed a mess…
So, in real life, the flight plan you file is a “suggestion”. The system attempts to honor your plan, but, many times they’ll completely rewrite it within the limits of the plane you are flying (the aircraft type is an important part of an IFR filing).
Current ATC is basically the same ATC from the earlier FS versions, with some upgrades (and it seems some downgrades, but that’s mean).
So, for one, I think they tried to replicate the real life scenario with random changes, and also I think it also at least used to select the runway at the destination based on wind direction (I don’t know how well that works now, seems broken to me). But I’ve also been requested to go to FL180 in a C172 or C152 I think it was.
In general, I’d just ignore requests like that. Worst case, if the “please expedite climb” gets annoying, cancel IFR and either file a new flight plan mid-route, or just fly it yourself. Point being, yeah, it’s pretty much a bug.
If you save a flight plan, and look in the PLN file, you can see it coming. It sticks to the waypoints that are set above your desired cruising altitude.
Even if you asked for say 12000… if the flightplan then contains this for one of your waypoints:
< Alt1FP >20000< /Alt1FP >
< AltDescFP >AT_OR_ABOVE< /AltDescFP >
They are gonna direct you to 20000.
Now I’ve tried overwriting those values. Then loading it. But without success.
The issue is: they should either tell you that they can’t comply to your request when you cobble together your flight plan (you’re not allowed that low) or ignore their own restrictions and just give you what you want.
Now they allow you to request it, and then they ignore your request without warning. So either way it’s a bug, or the usual half baked user experience.
The flight plans generated by the World Map flight planner contain altitude restrictions as published in the SIDS or STARS. If an arrival specifies 14,000 ft as a minimum crossing altitude but your cruising altitude is 10,000 ft, what is ATC supposed to do? Honor your cruising altitude and allow you to fly over a waypoint at an altitude lower than charted? Or should they instruct you to fly at an altitude higher than your cruising altitude?
In addition, SIDs and STARs often have routes that are for jets only. Why? Because the aircraft are expected to fly those altitudes and speeds. And it is possible to create an IFR flight plan for a C172 using those jets-only routes having speeds and altitudes way beyond C172 ability. What is ATC going to do with that flight plan? ATC assumes the pilot-in-command knows what they are doing.
This issue is made more difficult because Navigraph and LNM flight plans do not contain any altitude restrictions. And many pilots like to program their FMS with their flight plan including altitude restrictions. However, I don’t know if there is an uplink of the hand crafted flight plan to MSFS (ATC).
Well, it is perfectly clear what is appening.
Sadly the waypoints in the worldmap do not show altitude restrictions info.
I think there is a lot of info that MSFS hides from us. I may be very old school but before flying I print each SID, STAR, Approach, and Airport chart. I verify the waypoints, altitudes, and radio frequencies to make sure nothing is “lost in translation.”
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