My husband is booked in economy (M) for LHR-YVR-LHR.

I'd like to use miles to get him into CW/F. I know I can't MFU 2 cabins, and there's only Award availability for the outbound segment. (if it was available both ways, no problem!)

So, if I give him an F Award ticket outbound, he technically won't use his M outbound and the return segment will be cancelled. I've called BAEC and they can't see a solution, even though he will physically be on the same flight, just in more comfort. I even suggested he checks in twice and puts a teddy bear on the economy seat :-)

Any suggestions or magic words to say to reservations to make it possible to "replace" the outbound cash-paid-segment with an award-segment?

Thanks, HH