Anyone have an update or recent experience with this issue? I have an award booked that shows up as follows:



When I called to book the award, the story I was told regarding what happens at T-24 if IN doesn't open up prior to this was that the passenger would be automatically added to the airport upgrade list, with the priority of an instrument-supported upgrade and the status of the traveler (not the booker, as in the past). I called back to see if I could get a consistent answer, and (surprise) was told a different story: waitlist at the airport on the day of departure is not possible, and the system will continue to search for IN inventory in the background until the airport is given control; IN inventory is given to those requesting it in order of the status of the traveler. Unfortunately, the latter explanation was offered by an agent in HNL who was aware of the (former?) FFCC system. She didn't directly say that FFCC was gone, but I didn't ask directly either.

My passenger has no status so I doubt either explanation offers much hope in this situation (discounting the not-unrealistic chance that IN could open up in the next 3 months), but it would be useful to know for the future.