'Des' phase during climb when FCU altitude is less than Cruise Altitude

Hi All,

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or whether this is a feature or a bug.

I've noticed that when I am climbing, if my altitude in the FCU selection is 15,000 feet or more away from the cruise altitude the aircraft goes to the 'Descent' phase, (on the PERF page of the FMS, the "DES' phase is shown) and because of that, only open climb is available (which I understand is because the aircraft wants to follow a descent path, hence why CLB would not be available). However if I select an altitude within 15,000 feet of the cruise altitude, it goes back to the climb phase as I would expect.

I've noticed this a number of times recently and reinstalled the aircraft but it still seems to be happening. Below is a dummy flight to test it with a cruise altitude of FL 350. The first screenshot shows it when FL200 is selected in the FCU and the aircraft in the 'descent' phase and the second has it when FL210 is selected and it defaults correctly to the 'Climb' phase.

Could very well be that I've been missing a step in the setup for all my recent A350 flights or perhaps this is how the real aircraft flies but wanted to check. I tried this on the A340 and the aircraft remained in the CLB phase irrespective of the altitude selected which is what I would expect.

Thanks for your help! :)

FL200

FL210 Selected