OK folks, here's where the rubber hits the road.
The "hang up and call back" suggestion is just plane solid human waste. Yes, thank you, that's what has worked for you. However I am of the mind that we're paying stupid, lazy Americans for their jobs if that's the correct approach. Would you join me in kissing off all pretense and firing their arses? Many of you whined about bringing these calls "back to the USA" but my experience is that I would prefer to have a Filipino or Mexican over what I've been having to deal with.
OK. Got that out of the way. Some here seem to be of the Socialist persuasion and feel that we should be happy with uninformed people that don't want to work hard for their customers. (Warbo, please jump in with your normal nasty American bit... Just waiting for you.).
I asked John Reistrup/Director of DM for help, but it appears that US is being blackballed by the Star Alliance and he doesn't want to comment.
AZ Travels the World, this gets to the heart of what's not working at US. They seem to be making everyone (had to think of a nicer way to say it...) put out to the point where they are not part of the team. So please don't move the thread. IMHO, it appears that US is not being completely truthful about their Star Alliance program membership. As much as I hate lawyers (sorry if you're one, but tough luck unless you're a prosecutor), I have approached Terry Goddard/Atty Gen'l of AZ to see if he's willing to look into it. I recognize that this is a bit of "bite your nose off..." for an AZ Atty Gen'l, but there couldn't be better timing than when US is going after DL. Somebody needs to make the airlines come clean on award travel. If you're not welcome for Premium award travel to ASPAC, then you need to include that extra bit in your Ts&Cs and highlight the change to your current FFs.