Thanks for the link. I need to take some time to read (internalize) all of this information one of these days.

So far we have been pretty lucky--never ending up in coach on an international flight, or even a trans-con for a good long while--using the dummy reservation mode, or just asking a reservation agent, before we book. When we do actual award tickets, we just won't book them if we can't get what we want at the time of booking, but, of course, at this stage of our life, we don't do much award travel. That will come with retirement, where we will have even more options on travel dates most of the time.