[quote]<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by rtpflyer:
I do believe that on SOME airlines at least, the chances of me finding the trip I want available for the dates I want without using double the mileage for the award are MUCH worse than last year.
I agree. But there are two points. First, you always can use the higher award level that does not have capacity restrictions.
And second, if it is getting so much easier to earn extra miles, then we all have a lot more miles than we would if we could only earn them by flying. We need to spend more miles for a free trip but we can earn more miles from the extra opportunities. It all evens out. I just consider it mileage inflation.