I wish they would do this for me. I tried again this morning. Standard availability is still showing for AUS/MLM on 3/11. When I called CO, after several tries, I was put through to IT. Here's what I found out:

!. Yes, the IT could see that the website showed availability.

2. She said the website was wrong, there wasn't availability.

3. "They/we have been having a lot of problems like this since some changeovers a while back."

4. "If a standard seat was available on any leg of a trip, the entire trip erroneously show standard availability whether it was available or not." I know this is not true, because there are three flights AUS/IAH which would connect with the available IAH/MLM flight, but only one was showing standard availability.

4. I could not watlist for the AUS/IAH portions.

5. "Because of the glitches, people shouldn't trust the website for booking award travel, but should call CO reservations."

The quoted phrases are her words. The whole experience has been frustrating and disappointing. Because my friend had already bought his ticket I booked standard IAH/MLM and MZT/IAH and bought a roundtrip ticket for AUS/IAH for about the same price as three hotel nights in Morelia.

CO seems to be proud of their website tool for planning award travel. In my case, it looks their pride preceeded my fall. I wish I had had the info about its unreliability before beginning to plan this trip.