I have an odd married segments issue popping up. I am trying to get 2 family members who booked high-Y tickets on miles into low business class.

They are flying out of the NYC area, but it seems likely to me I need to look at another gateway for their transatlantic flight. When I search DTW-AMS-XXX I find that DTW-MSP is available at the high level, but MSP-AMS-XXX is available at low. So I look at MSP-AMS-XXX and guess what? MSP-DTW is high, but DTW-AMS-XXX is low! This in fact happens for a number of different cities. In the end, the are flying out of the the NY area, but willing to connect somewhere in the US on the way to AMS.

What is the solution here, do I need to call in and see if I can find low Y on that first segment to DTW/MSP or somewhere else where there appears to then be low business availability for flights onward to AMS-XXX?