Always play "whack a mole" for redemptions... thought I'd give waitlist a try.

It is for a full redemption, not an upgrade.

From what I've read here, it sounds like it's not particularly reliable? Probably still need to check daily?

Anyway, have a non-standard situation. I had booked a one-way redemption in December, 2015. Ended up finding another way to handle the flight. When I called to cancel it, and wanted to put the miles back in my bank, the MPC person said to just leave it open, and I could pay a rebooking fee, rather than a $125 cancellation fee.

I'll need 145,000 miles for this waitlisted award, if I get it. I probably have 80K-90K miles in my bank right now.

Anyone have any idea how the "open redemption ticket" will be utilized here. I'm sure it will require a phone call... which is no problem.

But I've never tried the waitlisting before, so I'm not sure how it will work. Will I get some sort of email, SMS, or phone call? Will I need to respond within some short timeframe? Will they see that I have this open ticket? Or will they only see the miles in my bank, conclude I don't have sufficient miles, and then pass the available seat to someone else?