The airlines don't want to overbook premium cabins much, and don't want the seats going out empty due to spurious bookings, so you can understand what they're trying to do. Nicely, in my limited experience, they also understand our needs, and are more than willing to help you make and hold reservations they're fairly confident will actually be used. I'm pretty sure that if you have a plan, and explain it to them they'll be perfectly happy to let you execute it. i.e. I'll be in CAI on x date to pick up my tickets, can you hold my res till then.

In the case of CAI, both Emeco and BA have been willing to issue the tix and hold them for arrival, which also puts an end to the matter. Emeco wants wire transfer, probably, while Ms. Sobhi will likely take a c/c. Emeco will Fedex ahead of time, Ms. Sobhi probably would except she doesn't have the budget and doesn't know how to charge you for it (guessing.) CX/CMB would likely have issued/held in advance (against c/c) but in my case by the time they got around to issuing the tickets there wasn't much of a hold time. But the CX agent in NA I originally spoke with about ex-CMB had no trouble holding a straw-man itin without any mention of a deadline, because first segment was almost a year away. The seat in question wasn't going to be important to them for a long time.

Bottom line, I'm pretty sure it will never be an issue, or will be easily handled by asking for a later deadline.