What's the general consensus of the mileage redemption ability this year?

I've had what I think is good success, even though I redeemed mileage for three tickets. I'll admit, I had to be creative, and patient, but my success stories are as follows:

1. Earlier in March, during the "oops" MLT West Coast - HNL hoopala, I managed to snag my parents two tickets in economy at the 35k rate. I got one leg "on sale" right away, and after checking back, managed to snag the return at the discounted rate. God bless the "no fee for Plat award ticket changes." My parents fly from MKE.

2. I have to go to FRA next month. I got my dad to go with me, and offered to take care of the ticket in exchange for some cash (er, he gets to pay for the hotel.)

I got him the cheap seats on the outbound flight (had to rebook once to get a better date when it opened up) and had a heck of a time finding return seats at the cheap rate for ANY date. And then bam. A couple of weeks ago, the whole month of October opened up for cheap seats.

So, after some looking, I've been able to redeem three tickets at the discounted rate, on the dates that I wanted. Am I extremely lucky, or is that par for the course?