Narrative:

On departure; departure control issued a climb via SID except maintain FL210. There was a fix on the departure that had a at or below 9000 restriction. Both the first officer and I were under the impression that this clearance canceled the altitudes on the SID and gave us a new assigned altitude of FL210. Prior to the fix with the at or below 9000 restriction; the controller assigned us a right turn and new heading with a request to expedite our climb through 12000. After the first officer read back the instructions; the controller advised us to be careful next time with at or below 9000 restriction on that departure. We told him that we must have misunderstood the clearance and he said not to worry about it; but that we would still have to comply with the restriction even after given an 'except maintain' clearance.being a new captain; the RNAV departure procedures and the expect maintain clearances are new to me. I thought this clearance meant to comply with the speeds and fixes but that all altitudes were waved with the new clearance limit. My first officer apparently was under the same impression. I called and talked to my chief pilot to verify the details and meaning of this type of clearance. He was able to explain what the clearance meant and where we were wrong. Knowledge and a complete understanding of this phraseology is imperative to avoiding this type of event. I was misinformed on this one; but I know now what it means and feel 100% confident that this type of error will not happen to me again thanks to the instruction from my chief pilot.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier Captain explained his confusion after overshooting a CLIMB VIA departure SID altitude constraint which he thought had been deleted with clearance to a higher altitude.

Narrative: On departure; Departure control issued a climb via SID except maintain FL210. There was a fix on the departure that had a at or below 9000 restriction. Both the First Officer and I were under the impression that this clearance canceled the altitudes on the SID and gave us a new assigned altitude of FL210. Prior to the fix with the at or below 9000 restriction; the Controller assigned us a right turn and new heading with a request to expedite our climb through 12000. After the First Officer read back the instructions; the Controller advised us to be careful next time with at or below 9000 restriction on that departure. We told him that we must have misunderstood the clearance and he said not to worry about it; but that we would still have to comply with the restriction even after given an 'except maintain' clearance.Being a new Captain; the RNAV departure procedures and the expect maintain clearances are new to me. I thought this clearance meant to comply with the speeds and fixes but that all altitudes were waved with the new clearance limit. My First Officer apparently was under the same impression. I called and talked to my Chief Pilot to verify the details and meaning of this type of clearance. He was able to explain what the clearance meant and where we were wrong. Knowledge and a complete understanding of this phraseology is imperative to avoiding this type of event. I was misinformed on this one; but I know now what it means and feel 100% confident that this type of error will not happen to me again thanks to the instruction from my Chief Pilot.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.