Originally Posted by
mooper
There are lots of advance-booking dates that aren't available at 25K, however, they tend to be more plentiful as they are released at once. This works against you, as you describe, if you aren't booking in advance. I love having plentiful 25K options a month or two, or even a day or two, from the date I want to travel if it's not something I planned for far ahead.
The fluctuation, though I think you're exaggerating a bit, is somewhat true. Not sure about those levels though... 40K is typically the high water mark for domestic coach (which becomes first for GM+ the majority of the time, given free unlimited award upgrades). With a little flexibility and access to Medallion inventory, it's quite easy to get most routes for 25K if you're willing to check back when it's not.
I believe, though I'm not sure, that the far-advance release was something NW did and Delta does not. The other side to this is that pre-merger, near-term awards were as readily available at the low/saver level.
I don't understand why you keep arguing. FT crowd is after J or F international awards. WN used to have excellent domestic awards @ saver level, that people can use for next day $700-800 tickets. Did you see a lot of FTers in WN forum? Most of the people here are business travelers, that fly on someone's else dime and redeem miles for an exotic vacation. They just don't need last minute domestic awards. I just got a ticket for a direct flight for next day SEA-JFK for 25k on DL. I have miles with CO, UA, AA and FL. All of them had it for 50k. If I pay cash for a stopover flight on Frontier, I would pay $475, direct on any airline - over $700 r/t. DL had plenty of 25k direct options for next couple days. But, when I want to go in J to EU, I don't even check DL sometimes
