Originally Posted by elCheapoDeluxe
I think it has more to do with the program than the destination. I've gotten tickets on AA to hawaii with less than a month advance, and several choices of flights. I've gotten tickets to DEN on UA during ski season with less than three weeks advance. I've gotten EIGHT seats to SYD on UA with tons of availability still open on those dates.
Ditto to everything above. UA has come through with Hawaii at peak and London/Paris at peak with less than 6 weeks notice both times. NW/CO on the other hand made it impossible to find anything over a 7 month stretch when trying to redeem to Asia or Europe, that's why I found those 200k miles to be useless and left the program. Great for free domestic upgrades, sucks for redemption.