I have started using up OnePass miles and on two occasions have selected First/Business as my choice and once the itinerary has been generated, rather than first to IAH or EWR, the domestic segment is shown as being in coach.
Is this a bug in the website, or just a little bit of disingenuousness on Continental's part-it would seem to me that if you selected first as your choice, you would assume that the entire trip would be in that fare category.

I think this is a combination of responding to negative feedback and poor implementation. Users of co.com were frustrated when the were shut out of selections when one leg of a trip was not available in front. In my case, I am still frustrated when I try to claim a BF reward to Europe online or otherwise - I know a reward ticket to EWR is most likely not available, so just get me there and make sure the important leg involves a left turn when boarding.

I also feel your pain. I was excited to see availability going to Los Cabos next month and had one heck of a bizz kill when they only showed CLE-EWR as F. Oh well - luckily they made it pretty obvious when the flights were displayed.

This also brings up another point - in the past it was almost painful trying to piece together a reward trip when calling the Elite Desk. Perhaps this improved since the re-implementation of dedicated elite staff, but why should I be the one asking them to break up the trip in to 4 legs and work each one of them individually or, god forbid, check partners? I know it is easier to do a quick search and say "no, I'm sorry Mr. MBM3" but how about a little creativity?

But in the big picture we have seen drastic improvement in this area over the past couple years and I am hoping it continues with more constructive feedback from people like us.

good point that i had not considered-give the user the option of seeing the important leg-the overseas segment is available, rather than none at all.

The opposite problem is just as annoying and makes the reward search fruitless as well when the non-important legs make a whole trip look like it is available in F. For instance DCA-IAH-AUS might show lots of Standard First rewards because there is often an F reward available on the short IAH-AUS hop when at the same time there is rarely (in my experience never) a non-stop, standard F reward for DCA-IAH.

Further, what if you add the example of DCA-IAH being available only in Y, but IAH-AUS being available only in F (but not Y). It's still better to buy that one at DCA-IAH-AUS at the F price than EasyPass the thing in Y.

Of course it's up to the customer as to whether it's worth it.