Works for me. What are the results in your case?

let's run this code
<?php
class A{

function &b(&$f) {
        $d=&$f;
        $f='5';
        return $d;
}

}
$c='3';
$d=new A();
$h=$d->b($c);
//$h=&$d->b($c); //The & is needed to work well
//we get $h=&$c;
$h='9';
echo $c. ' '.$h;
//since we should see 9 9, but we can see 5 9
?>

we get 5 9
If we adapt the code to:
//$h=$d->b($c);
$h=&$d->b($c); //The & is needed to work well

we get 9 9, and that should be the good value, rigth?

This is expected behaviour. You *need* the $a =& func(),
a mere function &func() definition is not sufficient.

Agreed, this is not really nice... But $a = func() should
always return by value, you don't need to know how func() is
defined.

Equally, $a =& func() shouldn't work when it isn't defined
as returning by reference, since the function might not be
expecting it.

Btw: This has nothing to with call_time_pass_ref

status->bogus