limited Rule Busting?
 

I just talked to WP reservations this morning,couldn't get regular WP award seats(surprise!) on the date I wanted for return. Need that date, so said I'd rule bust...told sorry, no Rule Bust seats available either. I thought if there was space on the plane, you could always Rule Bust. Was I wrong??

No, rule busting is not unlimited. If I am remember correctly, standard awards for WBC come from the Z bucket. Rule Buster awards come from the C bucket. J bucket seats are reserved for big money spenders. I'm not sure what the deal is with domestic awards and international coach awards, but it is something similar---rule buster awards open up more buckets, but not all of them.

The coach rule busters come from the Y bucket

Rules for 2002 WP program appeared to return to the "if there's a seat for sale, 2X miles will claim it for an award" practice of a few years ago, as is still practiced by Delta and United. A less-binding capacity constraint isn't the same as no capacity constraints. Your experience suggests that RuleBusters aren't as useful as NWA would have us believe.

Now, what's the value of WP miles if 2X standard award value still doesn't get us a seat?