After going through the whole ordeal transferring from one Choice agent to another, I finally figured out why I couldn't make reward reservations.

Although I don't remember doing it, I supposedly put in my profile to earn airline miles instead of points. I never saw airline miles accrue because I only "earned" anything by buying the Discover America miles.

When I asked why I could book reward nights online before the new web site roll out but not after, the agents couldn't answer that.

The Choice Privileges and the regular reservations lines both told me I had 0 points. Upon being transferred to Member Services, the nice agent I spoke with saw my points and the supposed airline miles preference. He made the change on his end, and I was able to book a reward night immediately.

The moral of the story is to make sure you don't unknowingly have a miles option stored in your profile. But you can't check your points/miles preferences in your profile on the new web site, as far as I can tell. But thanks to the sticky posted atop the Choice forum, you *can* see it on the old site.