Wow, Mitch, you have much to learn.....

Others have explained it quite well. But think about it for a moment..... 4 of 6 seats on a 2 hour RJ went to friends of a 1K with a credit card. Offering CPU's to Premiers on award tickets is nice. Offering them to anyone on Premier miles is just another example of how CO really can't manage SHARES -- I can't believe they actually intend for it to work this way, but they seem powerless to reprogram the logic. There's reason why many airlines outsource this aspect of the operation.