I called the Elite desk about a EWR-DFW reward reservation that I couldn't get to price out at the new, lower reward level, and I was told that the new 20,000 mile reward applies to short-haul flights only (750 miles or less each direction).

Effective February 1, 2006, you may redeem reward travel within the 48 contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada on round-trip flights of 1,500 miles or less for only 20,000 miles.

I misread the program announcement to mean that the flights had to be 1,500 miles or less in each direction.

I'm usually a better reader than that.

Of course, that doesn't explain why EWR-ORD still doesn't work.