I have a CAI-DOH-Asia itinerary that is at least 6 weeks out, but I have to position to CAI from ATH. Given the insanity and uncertainty of this, I am concerned about buying my nonrefundable positioning flights to CAI (both ways), and then risking being told in the last moment they cannot re-route me, or if they do, flying the positioning followed by two flights of rerouting to DOH. What I am thinking of doing is booking back up flights with miles ATH-DOH, and then asking them to drop the first/last sector, so I start and finish in DOH, as far as they are concerned. In this scenario, they cannot claim that there is not re-routing availability, as I am dropping one sector and not asking for any re-routing. The ATH-DOH flights with miles cost about the same in miles as buying the positioning flights ATH-CAI, with the difference that the former are fully refundable as an EXP. My plan is actually to see if they will reroute me ATH-DOH-Asia to begin with, in which case I cancel the ATH-DOH award tickets, but I want to keep them as back up in case they refuse.
The only downside to this I see is if they actually have fixed the problem by then and they insist I fly CAI-DOH on their metal, in which case I may be SOL, as I won't have tix to CAI. What do you all think? Anyone doing anything like this?