I pondered this question carefully and my take on this is why only $75 fee. I suspect that all award seats are usually taken up when it nears flight time, since they allocate so few for award seating-something like 6 to 12 per flight. Then they raise the prices for the few seats that are left, hoping that business passengers pay the 1,2 or 3ks for the remainder of unfilled seats. If an award ticketer is able to snag a last minute seat, then the business traveler's money goes elsewhere. The US business model for airlines seems to be that a unfilled seat is better left unfilled if the alternative is to sell it for less than full-fare. If that is how the rules are, then $75 is a bargain.