Originally Posted by channa
This is apples to oranges. Last minute award travel is usually good on all airlines. If there are seats available a few days away, they might as well get something for them (miles off their books).
That said, it's just plain old a lot easier to redeem AA miles.
For example, to go to Ireland. I (admittedly not a CO Plat) couldn't get a pair of standard BF seats to Ireland any time in September or October. My only requirement was that they give me 7-16 days on the Emerald Isle.
I called AA, and the question was "what routing would you like?" And that was without having to go down any of the interesting paths like oneworld awards, etc.
Steve