Rock, you make a valid argument and I am very hopeful that those in CE who are of a similar opinion prevail.

I am a bit more pragmatic in my view and I think the combined NC from ALPA and management took a more "lazy" approach to this contract and didn't measure every word they chose to include.

I stand by my previous interpretation for four reasons:
1. I think they had language regarding long deadheads, deviations and classes of service that they knew already worked as it existed in our old contract. Rather than re-write it all, they chose to put a catch-all phrase in before all the existing sections (my "trump" statement) and leave the old language unchanged to cover any situation where a Flat Bed seat was not assigned.

2. They chose to remove the "intent" portion of the same section you previously quoted that begins like this:
Intent: This rule is designed to put the pilot in excellent position to obtain first class on long deadheads.

If we were meant to apply the language as you interpret, they wouldn't have stricken this language from the contract (it is in red and lined through in the TA document

3. In the final part of the same section, they specifically addressed a scenario in which a pilot is booked in economy class on a long DH (over 10 block less than 16 duty). In this case, he is authorized 130% of the established fare to deviate for better service. Why did they restrict this to only economy class tickets? Wouldn't this have been the perfect section to include the part about deviating from a Flat Bed seat in business class on an over 16 duty day and getting credited with the First class fare?

4. This Flat Bed change to the contract has always been presented as a compromise (i.e. concession) when it was discussed by the NC in their road shows and it was printed in blue in the leaked highlights of the TA.

I think it would have been great if they included another intent statement so we wouldn't be in this situation. It should have said something like:
We want to ensure that anyone deadheading on company business who chooses to stay on the scheduled DH is assigned a Flat Bed seat when available. If it is not available and the pilot chooses to deviate to obtain better seating or deviating is just his preference, we want to make sure he has the same deviation bank and deviation options he would have had under the old contract.

If that really was their intent, they did a really poor job of putting that in writing using unambiguous language (big surprise).

Is no one friends with these NC guys? It seems like just asking them directly what they expected to happen in these situations would be a good place to start.