I receive emails from multiple 客服 units on the same case numbers. These message chains are almost completely disconnected from each other. As an aside, the Chinese units seem to be far superior wrt communicating with hotels (e.g. they don't simply bow down to "talk with 顺丰 about the 快递 the hotel signed for" logic). That having been said, I can't really complain about the trip coins that the English units have flooded me with.

I'm actually interested in how to best game these. It's pretty easy to spot good values in cities that I know well, but when visiting new (to me) places, more research is beneficial. I took the bait on the Savoy Hotel in Manila for later his week because their (diamond) rate is far superior to Expedia, Priceline, and Agoda, but there's a decent chance that it's a crappy hotel they are simply trying to prop up. I'm happy to take the risk, in this case (we're only talking about $50).