There was one time I gave up communicating in English and switched to Cantonese midway, which was fine. I found Cantonese to be the most effective method and would recommend others to do so if they can speak the language.

I assume I'm routed to a centre within the Greater China region. However, I regularly call the hotline in the early mornings of UK time which should be midnight in HK.

Does having status bear any effect on which call centre picks up?

in my experience, the call is just randomly routed, on my last 3 calls in the past 7 days, I have spoken to G'zhou, Manila and HK locations, Had issues with G'Zhou and Manila regarding pricing and ticketing a musical instrument that needed to be carried onboard and it took 5-6 hours for Manila to call me back with pricing but with another flight, I called and was connected to HK and they were able to price and ticket the same instrument on another flight within 10 minutes. I did ask how come their HK location was so efficient compared to my previous experience the previous day and they said I had come thru to their dedicated DM customer service.- so its a roll of the dice.

There you go, how painstaking it is to go round in circles!

Should have rephrased my question, what factors affect which call center you're allocated?
Status? Time of day? Language? Type of query (ticketing, Asia Miles Redemption, MPC etc.)?

Recently had to call in several times to price out a mixed-cabin multi-city flight and it's always been Manila.
Each time they were efficient though, no bad things to say.

My call center experience is that the Hong Kong center is by far the most efficient and competent. Guangzhou staff in general are much less experienced as if I am leading him/her to do all the changes. I am pretty certain I am more knowledgeable than some of their staff there. I don't choose English ever (since I heard bad things about the Manila call center) so I hardly experience Manila staff. Now that I have been selected to have a Relationship Manager, I simply call my RM directly during office hours to sort all my travel needs. She's based in CX City and knows her stuff (so far so good). If I require urgent assistance during out of office hours of course I still dial the 27473333 hotline and someone will pick up my call very quickly.

You have been selected to have a RM?
That sounds interesting. Can you share more about it?
I have been pissed off many times by the call center. Wish I would have one too.

Anecdote that i'd like to share:

Recently ticketed two Oneworld Explorer tickets with Cathay. Started on a chat in English (stupid on my part, had to HUACA with manila twice as the first two agents didnt know what a oneworld explorer ticket was). Got to the third person.. shockingly he knew what he was doing and built an itinerary based on all the sectors i needed (and i had 13 of them). Said ticketing would call me back to price it out and continue, which i was fine with.

An hour later, I get a call back from an agent based in Hong Kong. It was as if a unicorn called. She knew everything about Oneworld explorer tickets , rules and regulations off the top of her head and even gave me tips on how to maximize the ticket to its full potential. it wasn't formal as well and it was like talking to a friend who was helping you out to book a ticket and letting you in on the nuances. Got the ticket properly done up and all sorted out without any resistance or hesitation from the agent. So my point is, there are definitely a few people in their office who know what they're doing.... just hope that the HK office answers !

my wonderful Manila call center experience
 

I just hung up a call with the Manila call center which got me nowhere after a good 20 minutes of circle conversation.

I have an AA award economy ticket from JFK to HKG and I would like to select a seat. It is a rather long flight but I was not able to do so online. So I called to find out whether I am allowed to pre-select a seat.

I gave my name at the beginning of the call and the agent asked me again for the name on the ticket. Since I had already given her my name I thought she wanted the full name, with my middle name. After I gave her the full name, she said the name did not match her record and refused to go on. I told her the name was either my first and last name or my full name with my middle name. She said she could only accept the first answer if it did not match, nothing she could do for me

I was absolutely dumbfounded!

That is pure idiocy.

Its possible to book / ticket Oneworld Explorer with Cathay? I thought it had to be done via the dedicated oneworld site? Thanks

it is indeed! oneworld's website is buggy AF and you won't unlock the explorer's full capacity with the website. Call it in or start with a chat and have someone piece together an itin and have cx ticketing call you back.

you'd be paying with cash, not FF points?
do you pay OneWorld (as an entity), or pay any OW carrier?

oneworld Explorers are cash tickets that you buy from one of the OW airlines. For detailed info you should move over to the OneWorld forum to get much expert knowledge built up over many years by the regulars there.