I've had mixed success with AP reward tickets. One of the first reward bookings I ever made with AP was a spur-of-the-moment decision to go from YVR to Austin in the middle of July 03. Called up the AP centre, asked if they had anything available for the coming weekend, and got my first choice of flights instantly.

Of course it all went downhill from there.

My last reward booking was a couple of months back, when I was looking for a YVR-YOW ticket for 6 weeks away. Pretty short timeline and a popular route, bought I thought I might get lucky given my earlier experiences. The available economy routings would have taken 24h each way, with naptime in a couple of airports along the way! The recently-introduced Avenue Rewards weren't any better. I could get one direct flight on the way back, but some ridiculous routing on the way there. I ended up taking an Executive Class reward that went YVR-YWG-YOW then YOW-YYZ-YWG-YVR. It wasn't too bad, and I sure got to eat a lot.