So far I have had very good luck. But yes you do have to call, the online award calendar is missing an awful lot. I think it will take months perhaps even years to have full integration with IT. It's very complicated, and as I recall skyteam and Continental were only just barely beginning to get it together at the end. Even then frequently I would find flights available on NWA.com, that didn't show up on continental.com... but I would call the agent and there was no issue booking those flights. If you want to see a totally useless award calendar go visit delta.com sometime.