I think it's probably a thankless task, dealing with often disgruntled frequent flyers on the phone. I really did a lot of research for my last redemption and on some routes there was absolutely no miles tickets available in any class. Some countries and regions had nothing whatsoever. I'm sure people get fed up with the lack of availability, along with the ridiculous surcharges. So I think a lot of agents just can't be bothered, just preferring to hang up at the sign of even a slightly complex request, just to avoid conflict if nothing else. I had three agents who somehow got cut off from me. Another one gave me the impression she was just doing nothing, just keeping the line open to let the time pass (and the phone bill mount up). Another one was nyet, nyet, nyet, as the Russians would say, one way tickets were not possible, business class is not possible, you name it. No worries, you just have to keep trying, you need to be hartknäckig, as the Germans would say. It's a bit like the water off a duck's back, you've just got to keep going, you'll get somebody good in the end.

I was looking for 3 seats in Business and I want to feed back that I often saw those 3 seats and the agent couldn't. Then sometimes the agent could see availability and I couldn't. In one case, I could see availability on myAustrian into Vienna and on to Düsseldorf. But when I looked for flights only to Vienna there was no availability, married segments issues, probably. So it's a bit of a lottery getting seats for complex itineraries. I have to say, I managed it though: it's not easy to get 3 seats in the Business cabin and I managed it. I will post about it over in the Business class miles tickets thread.