Originally Posted by
ifette
uhm... the same way you would contact anyone? Honestly, 800 numbers are a pain in the butt from overseas. Some phone systems will refuse to connect, others will helpfully tell you that 800 calls are not toll free from overseas and then connect you (at standard international rates). Personally, I prefer not to have to dial an 800 number for exactly this reason (have hit phones before, overseas, where I cannot dial an 800 number). Dialing the US from Canada is cheap enough, and frankly dialing the US from anywhere is pretty cheap (sadly vice versa is not always true).
Unless you are dialing from a hotel phone or a pay phone (in which case you seriously need to get with the times and get something like google voice or skype), this falls squarely in the realm of "oh my god my miles are going to take 24 hours to post." But given this number is for past travel experiences, no idea why you would be calling from a hotel/pay phone. Call when you get home, wherever that is.
Seriously, you're getting something great, and you're going to complain about the fact that it's not an 800 number? please.
Several companies - banks, airlines etc. have toll free numbers set up for a range of countries so that you are not paying 50c a minute or whatever. I just think it's bizarre that it's a direct dial number and the prime reason for my post was not to complain so much as to refute the suggestion above from another poster that more companies should eliminate toll free numbers altogether because people in the US get free long distance. I'm glad it's free for you, just pointing out that it's not for everyone - and several other companies successfully have toll free numbers in place for many different countries and it works just fine!