Originally Posted by
sigma6
Yes I know awards are geared towards single flyers, mainly business flyers with expense accounts or tax write offs. If they flooded the planes with more awards I'm sure people would be more eager to spend their points/miles with an airline instead of the mall or direct cash out. I'm not familiar with loads but i'm sure if they wanted full planes especially in premium cabins, more award seats would help that.
For example, If a non-work travel family has 200k in points i'm sure they would to use that to supplement their summer vacation to Hawaii or Disneyworld. I doubt families can sustain awards year after year so there is no fear of cannibalizing paid fares.
Except that making too much of that available cannibalizes the paid fares
of someone else. Airlines have figured out how to manage capacity to keep lanes full, because at the capacities they have, there seems to always be someone else who wants or needs to fly, if you didn't. In a world where most seats can be sold, why should you expect a lot of award availability?