I've benefited from the community. Presumably a ton of people will benefit from my post. I'll feel good if I hear about success stories using my technique.

I think that DL is frustrating enough to deal with. Anything that gives the passengers a leg up is worthwhile, even if it's short-lived. People aren't always motivated by self-interest. Why do folks spend their time hanging out on forums, helping out novice FTers? In most cases, I don't think it's self-interest.

But I'm not sure it's going to be short-lived. Here's the thing -- I (nervously) told the DL rep I spoke to that KL had put the itinerary on hold for me because she asked me a direct question, and I didn't want to lie. To my surprise, she was fine with the idea of trying to take over the KL reservation.

I think there's a decent chance that DL would consider this to be a strange but acceptable way to book a flight. I don't see why DL would have a problem with the technique. I've booked in O, which is the correct fare code from DL's perspective, so they should be fine with it. KL also shouldn't have a problem with it because they're getting paid by DL. I think that all I've done is figured out a way to get around a bug in interface between the DL and KL booking systems.

From the responses to my posts, I wonder whether other folks knew this was possible, and I just blew the lid on a known, closely held method.