Very clever workaround! I've always just used the one mentioned by violist, i.e., I just don't select a seat at all. It defaults to E+ for me and if I don't like the seats, I just phone to get them changed.

However, next time I use the web to book an award (can't do that very often, as a lot of my awards are open-jaw international), I will try the workaround of checking standard awards first.