I actually had an excellent experience earlier this morning. Trying to burn some MR points, I was looking for 5 economy AerLingus from BOS-SNN in April. BA site wanted to route me through LHR w/$3000+ in fees. Checked Qantas, sure enough there was availability for EI BOS-SNN-BOS. Phoned up BAEC, confirmed availability and Avios needed (125K). While I was on the call I intantly transferred 90K MR pts, giving me 126K Avios (40%bonus). Then the CSR actually offered to waive the $25/ticket call-in fee before I even asked!

Granted it was a pretty straight forward proposition....but still quite painless.