Originally Posted by slippahs
I was speaking specifically to Chuck. Since he lives within the Hawaiian Islands, I'm pretty sure his calls gets patched through to the Honolulu reservations center. I've redeemed an award using UA miles on AQ twice and have never had a problem when calling from the islands. I don't know where you calls in WA get routed to. Either way, it's a hypothesis on my part.
Hmmm... I've had the best luck getting the Hawaii call center when calling late at night, Hawai`i time. They do seem a bit more knowledgeable, and, for whatever reason, the last couple of times the answer was coming back from AQ within a few seconds.
Second best is to call the dedicated Domestic Awards line during mainland business hours. These folks are some of the best in the UA system. But after mainland business hours, it just gets you the Premier line, apparently.