Edit November 18, 2017: Three more positive reports in the last two weeks. This trick may never die. :)

In Don’t Pay the $75 Close In Fee on United (Trick!), Scott wrote about an easy way anyone can avoid the fee United charges non-elites for booking an award within 21 days of departure.

It looks as though the longstanding workaround to booking American Airlines awards flying Etihad--calling the Australia/New Zealand reservations office--is no longer a workaround. I hope this isn't the case, as redeeming AAdvantage miles to book premium Etihad cabins to the Middle East and on to the Indian Sub-continent region is/was one of the best uses of AAdvantage miles.
Background
Booking Etihad premium cabin award space with American Airlines miles has always been a bit tricky.

If you have long legs then the distance between the seat backs on a plane, called seat pitch, is of primary importance. That's especially true when you're looking to book a cheap cash flight most likely in economy class, where seat pitches vary greatly. A couple inches can make a world of a difference.

The pitch of Ryanair could be unacceptable to long-legged individuals. 

Seat pitch information is not a new feature of Google Flights search results.

Through tomorrow, June 30 at 23:59 hr BST (British Summer Time) you can buy British Airways Avios with a 50% bonus. I've never seen a onuses greater than 50% on the purchase of Avios before.

The maximum amount of Avios you can buy through this promotion is 100k. With a 50% bonus, that means you can add 150k Avios to your account.

Note from Sarah Page: Scott wrote this post back in 2014, but I am re-posting it now because it's an invaluable trick. Every economy flight I fly I check my armrest for the secret lever under the joint of the arm and four times out of five, it's there. 

I fly a lot of flights in economy class. While all my long-hauls are in business or first, when I fly domestically or hop around Southeast Asia, Europe, or Australia, it's almost always in coach.

It's just not worth using airline miles to book short flights in first class.

This comprehensive spreadsheet details commonly used loyalty programs and their policies towards booking an award close to the travel date.

To see how much you might have to pay for booking a last minute award, look up the loyalty program whose miles you will use on the chart (which might not necessarily be the airline you fly).

I noticed something very interesting about the Etihad Guest award policies when redeeming on American Airlines flights that could be very helpful to all you parents out there trying to navigate international award travel with babies.

Now, I'm not claiming to be an expert on infant lap travel.

Through tomorrow (May 26, 2015), British Airways is offering a 40% bonus on the purchase of Avios. The biggest bonus ever offered on the purchase of Avios was 50% in February 2015, so this is a big bonus.

The maximum Avios you can purchase in a year is normally 35,000, but is being raised to 100,000 during this promotion. With a 40% bonus, that means you can add 140,000 Avios to your account.

Update: I used this trick successfully. Here was my experience.

As I led a session at the Chicago Seminars this weekend on "Special Awards," someone chimed in with an intriguing tip:

There is a simple method to avoid the $75 "close in ticketing fee" on United awards that is triggered when you try to book a ticket within 21 days of departure.

I tested out the proposed method yesterday, and I have some input on how it works.