I am non-elite whatsoever and the other day I had to check award availability from LED to TPE so I dutifully started navigating the phone menu. The friendly recorded voice replied, "you said St. Petersburg/Tampa, Florida to Taipei, Taiwan. Is that correct?" No, of course not, but the menu is no help.

Finally I get an agent on the line, "I need to travel from St. Petersburg, Russia but the system won't take it". She responds, "where are you travelling from?" I repeat, "I am travelling from St. Petersburg, Russia." Long pause. "Is that in the U.S.?" she asks a minute later. "No, that is in Russia," I respond trying very hard not to laugh. "Oh, you need our international line! One moment please." A friendly recorded voice comes on and says, "Welcome! Please say where you are travelling from..." A short while later, "You said St. Petersburg/Tampa, Florida to Taipei, Taiwan. Is that correct?"

Luckily I fooled it by asking for SVO-TPE and then getting a much better agent. A "fun" 20 minutes!