Interestingly, Alaska Airlines uses terminology to reinforce what happytraveling says: the capacity-controlled (20,000-mile) awards are called "standard" awards and the non-capacity-controlled (40,000-mile) awards are called "peak."

Fortunately, standard (aka "saver" or "non-peak") award availability on AS is pretty darn good. Unfortunately, they don't have the route structure to offer international availability, and so trying to redeem international "saver" awards on other carriers (BA, QF, AA, etc.) puts you against the same brick wall you face on those carriers.

I just find it interesting that AS acknowledges that most people view the cheaper awards as standard and the more expensive ones as not desirable. It's all semantics, but...