A week or so ago, there was a discussion of how many award seats the airlines offer. These numbers are never very easy to estimate, but I just came across something on American's site that clears it up:

http://www.aa.com/content/utility/FA...e_FAQ.jhtml#11

Q: How many AAdvantage Awards were claimed in 2006?
A: The number of awards claimed in 2006 in each AAdvantage mileage redemption category were as follows:

AAdvantage MileSAAver® and AAnytime® Awards (valid on American, American Eagle and AmericanConnection only) 2,455,434
Upgrade Awards 852,804
Product Redemptions (American Airlines Vacations, Magazines etc.) 205,109
Special Mileage Awards / Other Airline / Other 946,174
Total Redemptions - 2006 4,459,521

Note: Math corrected due to correction by edwin_p_morales:

I don't have the total number of passengers carried for 2006, but for 2005, it was just over 98 million (I don't think it changed much for 2006). That means that, on average, 2.5% of seats were flying on free tickets on AA and another 1.0% were on award tickets on other airlines or other awards. Surprisingly, 0.9% of passengers were on upgrade awards. That might not sound like much when compared to total passenger traffic, but when you consider that only a percentage of seats are upgraded seats, it's significant. For example, if 20% of all AA seats are J or F, then that would mean that 4.5% of the people sitting in J or F are using upgrade awards (this presumably does not include VIP or Elite upgrades - only mileage upgrades).


That might help to put some things in perspective.