Originally Posted by
mooper
No. WSJ and some other rankings compared apples to oranges, including their failure to differentiate close-in from advance redemption, and international from domestic. Also, UA/CO low/saver inventory has lessened while DL's has lessened to a lesser extent (i.e., DL hasn't improved availability - rather, it has remained more firm than others because of their policy change to prevent sub-72-hour free award changes).
Maybe because the average flyer feels that international redemptions provide greater savings in general and that most people cannot make last minute travel plans?