Now that I have read the article, a few things strike me:

1) Contrary to what Joe states, airlines generally have NOT said that any seat on any flight is available for miles. There has always been an out.

2) Joe, makes it sound like he is such a huge genious in figuring this all out since he heard about it last week. I would really think it gentlemanly if he were to at least admit that the real experts, those on FT have been debating this for weeks.

3) I find it really spooky that they are citing the Nice flight during the Cannes folm fest as that is the example that I have used repeatedly over the years on FT when speaking about "real" capacity controls. Truth be told, no airline has ever really released seats unless they have had to for any sort of award no matter what is said, if it is on a time/route which is hugely oversubscribed for full whack premium travel. No one.

4) While Joe does talk about CO coming up with the "saver" option, truth be told, for most airlines this was only an innovation of the last decade, and for much of the decade before that all had blackout dates where you just simply couldn't fly with miles.

5) I am aainst any changes which are adverse to FF's, however I see this DL move as essentially just a codification of what already goes on.