Originally Posted by Steve M

Why is not likely that someone else booked that route at that moment? Weren't you about to do the exact same thing? If you happened to be just a minute or two earlier such that the other person was the one left without a seat, don't you think they'd be thinking the same thing - "it's very unlikely that someone would book this seat just now" - even though they were trying to do the exact same thing at the same time.



Not everything is part of the Grand Conspiracy. Why would they put seats out for award redemption and then pull them back as soon as they saw someone browsing for them? If they didn't want someone to book that seat as an award, they'd just not offer it in the first place.