"Jim Carter" wrote:

My question for the group is: is there a special terminology that should
be used when requesting full-enroute flight following?

This exact situation happens routinely here in the Phoenix area. If I request flight following, even when I
state a destination outside Phoenix tracon's airspace, they will normally just give me a local squawk code
and terminate services when outside their airspace. I've found that the magic words that seem to work
are, "... request flight following with a center hand-off", sometimes with an "if able" or "time permitting"
thrown in for good measure. The controller will then get a center squawk code from Albuquerque center,
and hand me off.

My impression is that it's just a workload thing. Flight following is on a workload permitting basis, and they
can minimize their effort by just getting a local squawk with no coordination, and no hand-off. It is mildly
annoying, I must agree. If I tell them my VFR destination which is clearly in center's airspace, it would
seem that they could make the effort to coordinate it.

Mike