What the heck. I'll engage in some wishful thinking...
Seems to me that the operative terms in the DOT Notice are
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">consumers holding tickets on (insolvent) airlines</font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">ticketed passengers of the insovent carrier</font>
and
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">It is the Department’s position that section 145 requires, at a minimum, that passengers holding valid confirmed tickets, whether paper or electronic, of the
insolvent or bankrupt carrier must be transported by other carriers who operate
on the route for which the passenger is ticketed on a space-available basis on the
date of travel shown on the ticket or other documentation demonstrating e-ticketing, without significant additional charges.</font>
Nothing anywhere about how the passenger obtained the confirmed ticket.
My e-ticket confirmation/itinerary from USAirways doesn't identify that it is an award ticket.
Since it's apparent that the carrying airline will be compensated only minimally ($25 max) for carrying you space-available, it shouldn't matter to them how you came upon the confirmed reservation with the insolvent carrier.
The DOT's stance seems to be "
Hey, we stuck out our necks to keep you guys running post 9/11, so in exchange you have to treat stranded passengers in this manner."
The questions I'll add are: What about overseas travel? What about overseas award travel?
(I'm holding award tix on US to LGW in March...)
PDH