Have a 15 hour stopover and Dubai and apparently does not make me eligible for Dubai Connect because ”there are shorter flight connections available”

Have a 15 hour stopover and Dubai and apparently does not make me eligible for Dubai Connect because ”there are shorter flight connections available”. But those flights were not accessible when booking it because it is on a completely different day so I wouldn’t have been able to book or nor was I made aware of the Dubai Connect program at all. Would’ve reconsidered my time flights if I had known there were other options. I tried contacting support to see what I could do about my flight as my wife and I are sick and a 15 hour stopover would be horrible. Unfortunately could not get any affordable options and changing flights are ridiculously expensive even though are was available seats apparently on an earlier flight. Not sure why we weren’t put on that flight in the first place either a much shorter stopover