<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dnw:
I've just re-read your post as I origonally missed the bit about the booking class not being available... this basically means that you can't do an official waitlist through reservations, but you almost certainly will be able to at the airport if the ticket desk authorises it. (In the old days they put the little sticker on the ATB, I assume they do something similar with the e-tickets)
What often happens is that when the flight is getting close to closing (like the few hours before) if there is an available seat they will open it to any class.. you can see this on galileo sometimes, the flight goes from Y3 B0 H0 M0 R0 for days before to Y3 B3 H3 M3 etc the morning (or so) of departure.
I got the other half on the waitlist on an X(?) class student ticket on a +50 overbooked flight a couple summers ago, and a genuine reason and being pleasant to the girl closing the waitlist got him on... in WT+ 
[This message has been edited by dnw (edited Feb 09, 2004).]</font>
Thanks dnw for all your helpful advice, it's especially appreciated as I'm feeling a bit lost right now. I've got paper tickets so should I just go straight to the ticket desk when I get to the airport?