The May 7 edition of the Personal Journal of The Wall Street Journal contained a story advising readers that, while free seats may be harder to get for award redemption, restored and other new routes create hidden opportunities. For many of the readers of that article, this was news. For readers of Inside Flyer, this was news as well — in April 1998 when we first started to publish ‘New Routes’ as a way to help you get more free seats. The premise of our research was that new and restored flights were wide open for award redemption since they did not have any booking history. Hmmm. A four-year jump on The Wall Street Journal is something we’re pretty pleased with.