My girlfriend and I tried to get flights from NYC to Italy for August 2006 and there was all kinds of hassles (partners have no avail, we have to fly back from VCE, waitlists are closed). Its pretty sad when you see zero availability for bizelite at 100K miles yet only one or two seats in that cabin have been taken. I drained all my miles on Delta just to get coach seats at inopportune dates/times. Great way to reward frequent flyers Delta!
Although maybe they needed to do this to stay in business, in which case we shouldn't complain. How much value could you get out of 50K miles if there is no airline to fly.