The Cape Town call centre gets a bad rap and deservedly so so this will floor you.
A few weeks ago the SIN-LHR BA leg of a oneworld award I'd booked for two family members was cancelled for later in the year. I searched but no options were available to get from MEL to BRU, the origin and first destination, so I setup EF alerts. On Monday I received an alert that there were seats on AY SIN-HEL and there were also seats available HEL-BRU. I called the premium line at around 7am CDT and my call was answered in Cape Town. I can't remember that happening before.
Anyway, I told the agent there were seats available on AY and I'd like to book those. He seemed to ignore what I said, reviewed the itinerary, said SIN-LHR was cancelled and then said, 'We can put you on the PER-LHR direct. I'll just need to get authorisation.' I quickly checked EF which was showing J9 C9 D0 I0 for that date so I thought there was no chance. With barely a delay and literally no time on hold, he said it was confirmed. Today, the itinerary came through confirmed.
But, true to form, LHR-BRU had completely disappeared so I'm gonna have to call again.
Small steps.