Activating subscriptions using Auto Actions

The scenario is this. A user registers and doesn't complete payment. So they have a subscription with status R.

They then meet a requirement outside of the CB system, tracked by a custom component, and I want to activate the subscription.

I have tried the following wth Auto Actions type CB Paid Subscriptions, and nothing works. 
1. Subscribe to the plan
2. Renew to the plan
3. Delete the current current subscription, and then subscribe or renew to the plan

Is there a way to do this? TIA.

Additional information.

If the user registers, gets to payment, and then cancels, the following will work to subscribe them with Auto Actions: Delete followed by Subscribe.

If they do not cancel, this doesn't work. On the back-end, I notice that they have a Basket with status Basket Not Initiated. If I delete that basket, the above sequence works to subscribe them.

The CB Paid Subscriptions auto action only takes into consideration existing subscription status. It shouldn't matter if they've a pending basket or not. The renewal mode only works for renewing an existing subscription. The subscribe mode only works if they don't have an existing subscription, but can bypass that can force a renewal if toggled on. Do they have a subscription to the plan in CBSubs > Subscriptions already?

I suppose you could also just use a query auto action before the cb paid subscriptions auto action and clear their pending basket. That might be the preferred method since you don't want them still having a pending unpaid basket after giving them the subscription.

They have no existing subscription at the time of the subscribe, since I had already done an Auto Actions delete (and I verified this in the database). The query Auto Action sounds like it would do it. 

It's likely that the auto action is running fine, but there might be a check in CBSubs itself preventing the activation due to the unpaid basket. Clearing the basket first with a query action should resolve that though.

How do I reference a variable passed to the query Auto Action in the query sql?