Thanks for the information - I had never heard of that policy even if it was in there somewhere. Was bound to get tripped up by it at some point I'm sure.
Now is there any prohibition of just booking with points the day of? Unless you want a specific car, a well in advance reservation on points doesn't buy you much. Seems like one can get around this by cancelling a reservation 24+ hours out and making a new one the day of. Obviously that is a royal pain, which is why this is a bad money grubbing policy to start with.
Or could one change the reservation on the day of pickup to a future date, then cancelling now that it's not in the 24 hour window.