I will soon find myself in the same position, and not because I did not notice the expiration date. It seems the standard awards have been next to impossible to use. There have been flights where I have been able to purchase highly discounted tickets, yet not be able to use my standard award.
The difficulty using the awards seems to be border on a breech of trust. This is a different situation than award seats on other airlines--which may be frustrating, but your miles don't expire as long as you keep flying. These awards do expire--so the very limited availability renders them close to useless.