<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by RobertS975:
This notion is wrong... I personally have never taken an award flight that wasn't quite full, and the majority of them have been oversold flights for which volunteers have been sought. FFs earn miles flying between LGA and ATL, ORD and DFW etc., but they do not redeem miles for these kinds of flights.</font>
The plane being full or not is a function of the yeild management software. No airline can wait until the day before the flight to open it up to award flyers. The software, which we all know doesn't do that great of a job anymore, will let them know a year out how many seats till probably go empty, and be used for awards, etc.
While I earn miles from New York to Atlanta, I will also redeem them for New York to Atlanta if it's a connection to get me someplace else, or if the price is too high. We all to often think of New York to Chicago and New York to Los Angeles, without thinking many people on the New York to Chicago may be just on the first leg of a flight to Los Angeles.