Tino,

Stay with me here. Of course, most domestic discount tickets are priced at below 500$ but not all. There are many routes where travel is very often at the 500$ level and more. Even for two hour flights.

Also, while Southwest has a very liberal refund/exchange policy (I still have Southwest credit myself) I was basically referring to award reservations per se and not the hassle of returning ticketed journeys. I haven't used a paper ticket for a domestic journey in ages and especially not for award travel. Therefore an e-ticket is easily changed through a telephone call.

As for the availability of seats, of course there are more discount seats. But again it depends on the routes one flies. I have never been denied an award ticket request on domestic routes.

[edited for grammar]

[This message has been edited by Stephen loves Starwood (edited 05-01-2001).]