Would be interested to hear what people with more redemption experience than I have think about EasyPass. Is it a help to have it, or is it keeping people from getting seats that otherwise would/should go to awards at "standard" levels?

I switched from Delta Skymiles to OnePass at gold-elite level in 1998 after Delta's no-L-upgrades misstep. I'm generally very happy with OnePass, but it does often seem harder to redeem. With Delta you either got the seat at the standard level or you didn't, and they were good at trying to get something to work.

With OnePass there seems, so far at least, to be a fair number of cases where they have no standard-award seats but can offer one for twice the miles (as if that were a great alternative). Makes me wonder if they're trying to "yield-manage" award seats and if the EasyPass seats are being set aside at the expense of more standard seats.

Also makes me wonder if they keep EasyPass seats locked up for advance bookings but then release them to regular awards at x time before the flight.