Choice Privileges - Where was your reservationist?

I asked mine yesterday, and he said "El Salvador". (Did a good job, BTW.)

Yours?

Panama, yesterday. I ended, as I usually do when indicated, "I hope things are fine in San Salvador," which they always seem to genuinely like, and sometimes it leads to a little chit chat. But this time the person said, "That's our other call center. I'm in Panama ... ... etc." :)

When I used to call the Elite line (or whatever is was I called to handle award bookings/problems), the person on the other end of the line was always obviously an American.

Probably normal bookings can be handled effectively by Panama/El Salvador, etc., but anything complicated goes to the US location.

<shrug>

I do most of my bookings on line, so I seldom need to call.

Since I've build up a substantial balance of Choice points, I've never had to call for reservations since most of my hotel bookings get done online and the remainder are done directly with the hotels themselves.

I wonder if they route the elite line only through the US, as the only people I've talked to have been in Grand Junction, CO, Montana, and Albequerque, NM.

I'm a Diamond, and I regularly reach people in El Salvador (or Panama) during the day. At night, it's about even between reservationists there and in the U.S. I usually call the -2121 number for the GEICO rate, which can't be reached online. By the way, nearly all the reservationists I speak with in San Salvador have spent a lot of time in the U.S., first indicated by their accent, and then confirmed. The person in Panama said that a Panamanian needn't have spent any time in the U.S. proper to sound like they had, because Panama is so much a part of the U.S., even if it's not official anymore. I digress.

And I would add again that those who know their stuff seem to me to be about evenly distributed, Central America and stateside. :)

The one thing I'd always given Choice is the friendliness of the people on their reservation system. They are almost always personable, but even when they are all business they're good.

Which is why Steve (I'm 99.9% sure US based) threw me so much the other night. He was completely out of place and I almost felt bad for disturbing him. He obviously had other things he wanted to be doing.

Like most of you, I've done the routine a couple of hundred times, could probably do the typical spiel in my sleep about now. Steve knew it much, much less. The only inconsistency I see in the process is when they ask for the member ID number. I'd prefer they did it immediately (I am, after all, calling the elite line), but...

Steve really didn't want to take my member ID number, he wanted me to give him all my info over the phone, CC, AAA, etc.

It's hard to explain, but one of those things that I know that anyone here who has done the drill a lot would have noticed, too.