region biasing + places autocomplete doesn't work as expected

[fearless_fool]

I'm working from the code example given in:

   http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/places-autocomplete.html

I've added a 'US' region to the script parameter:

      <script type="text/javascript" src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?&key=yadda&sensor=false&region=US&libraries=places"></script>

and though I know that the region parameter is only a suggestion to the geocoder, it still seems surprising (at least to my users) that entering '313' in the text field initially suggests addresses in China.  Is that the expected behavior?

(FWIW, picking a LatLngBounds that encompasses the USA and passing that in the bounds option to the places.Autocomplete() function doesn't make much difference either.)