Narrative:

We were on the mscot arrival into iah. We had passed our top of descent according to our plane. There was a plane below us probably causing the delay. My first officer (first officer); who was pilot flying; mentioned this to me and I said he will start us down when he can. Eventually; we are cleared to descend (not via the arrival profile) from 330 to 200. We are doing an idle descent and are told to fly direct suunr and as we are passing approximately 220 he clears us to descend via the arrival. The first officer asks me to request altitude relief as the plane shows us 4500 feet above the path. I tell the controller we will be a little high at suunr and ask if this will be a problem. He says yes and starts turning us off the profile. I mention the reason we were so high was because we were cleared to descend too late. He responds; very defensively; he did not start us down too late. At least twice this denial came up. And I can't remember the exact words but I got the feeling he was implying it was us not his doing. I fired back we started down when cleared. If there had never been a problem on the profile we should have been cleared to descend via the profile a long ways back. Regardless; he was clearly irritated I had said this. Long story shortened; we eventually fly 180 degrees the opposite direction for approximately 45 miles. During this time I ask if a supervisor is monitoring. His response was for us to call on the ground. Not until I start asking how much further we can expect because I am now concerned about my fuel; does he start turning us back. Coincidence? Maybe. We eventually pull into the gate with about 5k pounds of fuel. Another 5-10 minutes further north I would have said min and maybe emergency fuel depending on my concerns at the time. I called after landing and talked to the supervisor at the time. Basically; it was agreed that I would give her time to listen and look at the tapes and talk to the controller before I would file any reports. After talking to her the next day she felt the controller did what he could to work us back in. As told to me; the controller felt bad he wasn't able to work us in. She believes in this controller and is confident there was no malice. I can't say if anything was done intentionally or not. I'm not a controller. But these are my thoughts and concerns:1. I get the idea the controller didn't bring up to [the supervisor] his being very defensive about starting us down late. Nor is it mentioned in the email. We were 4500 feet above the path at idle speed when cleared for the profile. At no time were we leveled off. Always idle trying to get to the path. Physically impossible to be that high if cleared to start down if given clearance anywhere around the right point to start down. I get it. We all make mistakes or maybe in this case due to traffic he couldn't start us down. But to be argumentative and so defensive is not right. A simple sorry I started you down late for traffic and will work you back in as soon as possible would have been nice. Certainly don't give us a short cut to suunr when they know we are high.2. At no time did he voice any concern or relay he will try to slip us in quickly if possible. Most controllers do. Also; during our vectors I asked if a supervisor was monitoring his reply was only call on the ground. [The supervisor] told me they are instructed to say this but what harm is there to calm the situation and say yes and call on the ground. I can't prove apathy but from the pilot's side it sure smelled funny. 3. If we had declared emergency fuel what discussions would be having now? 10 minutes out and 10 extra minutes in is almost 2k pounds of fuel. I don't like being put in that sort of situation if avoidable. It's uncomfortable at 15000 feet with 170 people for me. At no time in almost 30 years of commercial flying have I ever been vectored so dramatically for similar situations. Fortunately; my flight was the only flight that had to be vectored off. No telling what other issues that could have cause for his arrivals. I didn't even address our misconnected passengers.talking to [the supervisor] helped as I believe she is being truthful and honestly investigated. No one can say what the controller is thinking but [the supervisor] believes in this controller and says he is very good.I don't want anyone in trouble but this got to me enough where I felt it was needing reporting. I hate paperwork.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier flight crew described a late descend clearance which placed the aircraft approximately 4;000 feet high on the ZHU MSCOT RNAV STAR. ATC then vectored the aircraft about 35 miles which the crew objected to. ATC stated the vector put the aircraft in proper spacing for further descent.

Narrative: We were on the MSCOT arrival into IAH. We had passed our top of descent according to our plane. There was a plane below us probably causing the delay. My First Officer (FO); who was pilot flying; mentioned this to me and I said he will start us down when he can. Eventually; we are cleared to descend (not via the arrival profile) from 330 to 200. We are doing an idle descent and are told to fly direct SUUNR and as we are passing approximately 220 he clears us to descend via the arrival. The FO asks me to request altitude relief as the plane shows us 4500 feet above the path. I tell the controller we will be a little high at SUUNR and ask if this will be a problem. He says yes and starts turning us off the profile. I mention the reason we were so high was because we were cleared to descend too late. He responds; very defensively; he did not start us down too late. At least twice this denial came up. And I can't remember the exact words but I got the feeling he was implying it was us not his doing. I fired back we started down when cleared. If there had never been a problem on the profile we should have been cleared to descend via the profile a long ways back. Regardless; he was clearly irritated I had said this. Long story shortened; we eventually fly 180 degrees the opposite direction for approximately 45 miles. During this time I ask if a supervisor is monitoring. His response was for us to call on the ground. Not until I start asking how much further we can expect because I am now concerned about my fuel; does he start turning us back. Coincidence? Maybe. We eventually pull into the gate with about 5k pounds of fuel. Another 5-10 minutes further north I would have said min and maybe emergency fuel depending on my concerns at the time. I called after landing and talked to the supervisor at the time. Basically; it was agreed that I would give her time to listen and look at the tapes and talk to the controller before I would file any reports. After talking to her the next day she felt the controller did what he could to work us back in. As told to me; the controller felt bad he wasn't able to work us in. She believes in this controller and is confident there was no malice. I can't say if anything was done intentionally or not. I'm not a controller. But these are my thoughts and concerns:1. I get the idea the controller didn't bring up to [the supervisor] his being very defensive about starting us down late. Nor is it mentioned in the email. We were 4500 feet above the path at idle speed when cleared for the profile. At no time were we leveled off. Always idle trying to get to the path. Physically impossible to be that high if cleared to start down if given clearance anywhere around the right point to start down. I get it. We all make mistakes or maybe in this case due to traffic he couldn't start us down. But to be argumentative and so defensive is not right. A simple sorry I started you down late for traffic and will work you back in as soon as possible would have been nice. Certainly don't give us a short cut to SUUNR when they know we are high.2. At no time did he voice any concern or relay he will try to slip us in quickly if possible. Most controllers do. Also; during our vectors I asked if a supervisor was monitoring his reply was only call on the ground. [The supervisor] told me they are instructed to say this but what harm is there to calm the situation and say yes and call on the ground. I can't prove apathy but from the pilot's side it sure smelled funny. 3. If we had declared emergency fuel what discussions would be having now? 10 minutes out and 10 extra minutes in is almost 2k pounds of fuel. I don't like being put in that sort of situation IF avoidable. It's uncomfortable at 15000 feet with 170 people for me. At no time in almost 30 years of commercial flying have I ever been vectored so dramatically for similar situations. Fortunately; my flight was the only flight that had to be vectored off. No telling what other issues that could have cause for his arrivals. I didn't even address our misconnected passengers.Talking to [the supervisor] helped as I believe she is being truthful and honestly investigated. No one can say what the controller is thinking but [the supervisor] believes in this controller and says he is very good.I don't want anyone in trouble but this got to me enough where I felt it was needing reporting. I hate paperwork.

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.