Originally Posted by
iahphx
I would also note that CO could have more city-specific deals as well. Like there should be off-season EWR-origination European awards. It obviously costs CO less if they don't have to give you a connecting seat. As in this case with the OP, it can be dumb for a $300 EWR ticket to cost 50,000 miles.
EWR-CGN was at 25k miles a few years back IIRC (winter 06-07?) with light loads. Just a few weeks after that was announced, they came out with the $200 fare that went $275 AI.
So, they do it sometimes, but usually the route is performing poorly enough that they really cut back the standard Y fare, too.