I'm genuinely surprised by the stance taken by the second agent spoken to by the OP, because I still believe that the original decision, ie the refusal, was the correct one (I mean as far as EK rules go, not from a 'moral' perspective). Plus.....I got the distinct impression that others agreed with me during the course of the debate .....DYKWIA, eternaltransit, irishguy28 ........

EK004 Regular : just for total clarification, could you please let us know when your car has actually been confirmed AND shows as such on your MMB ?

I ask because I'm just wondering whether the agent who has now told you that he/she was booking the car, and would then call you back, may in fact be knocked back by someone else within the chain of command who is responsible for making any tricky decisions (a note at the top of the CDS Eligibility Grid states "Res Ops Team will confirm or reject CDS requests based on the below rules....")

It's not that I don't want you to have you the car. Quite the opposite. I have been refused a car myself when making (same day, non-stopover) domestic flights operated by QF to connect with a long-haul EK sector - so it would be in my own interests if the rules were either a) shown to have been interpreted wrongly in my case, or b) have recently been amended in some way.