Originally Posted by
sbm12
Actually the airlines revenue management systems are pretty good these days and they have pretty accurate historical models to work with in terms of predicting future sales of flights/routes, even several months out.
Totally correct. F/J cabins have few full-fare-paying pax. Airlines know from the get-go that their chances of selling the entire cabin for revenue, even discount revenue, are essentially zero. That's why they can set aside some award seats as soon as a flight becomes available for booking.