I can verify it works. Booked:
BKK-SYD in business (I) on Thai
SYD-SIN in business (I) on Singapore
SIN-BKK in business (I) on Singapore
When you click to confirm it gives you a 888# to call- different than other numbers- that can ONLY be used to confirm the booking- no queue time (at least when I called) and you don't pay the ap reward centre fees. My total cost for the above:
80000 AP miles and ZERO dollars (taxes include on * rewards in Asia apparently)
It took about 12 minutes for the call centre to confirm the request. The call centre mentioned that this was very new- the agent had not done this before- but they were super friendly about it and mentioned I didn't have to pay any fees as I booked online. Ticket was issued by mail- to Italy- took one week to arrive- was issued at YVR.

Very cool IMHO- I don't know of anyother carrier/program that offers this.