I did the NYOP on my trip to Omaha in August...found the lowest fare online and then chopped about $75 off of that...was accepted on United almost immediately. Much to my chagrin, there was a last-minute cheap airfare that came out about a week later that put the trip a few dollars less (one of the weekend four-day deals CO/UA typically do). I was routed through ORD and wound up having to spend the night at the hotel there (at UA's expense) because of an IRROPS condition where the last leg of the flight was on a plane with MX issues and there was not a like craft for the crew to take that evening. They got me booked on the first flight out the next morning and did ultimately give me a credit voucher to be used on future travel (has to be UA metal and not a codeshare though).
Because it was on UA, it let me later add my CO FF number so I got the miles for the flight and it also offered the usual array of free changes at OLCI to change the time of the flight.
Would I do it again? Only if I can get it to take a real low-ball figure. Not having the say in departure or routing is a little disconcerting...I don't mind multiple segments or extended routing if it is an airline where I collect the miles but it does not always work out that way. The other issue you could run into is in the checked bag fees...when you cannot choose the airline, you do not know if you will have one that will be hitting you with those fees or not.
Another option to look at would be Allegiant...some of the poker players swear by them since they are so dirt cheap. The biggest problem is they don't fly every day out of every airport...but they fill their niche well. Not sure if they fly into Reno but I believe they do...they seem to be quite the gamblers airline
As an aside...some on FlyerTalk have suggested that there may be a new round of fare sales announced in a few days (COUGH Jan 8th COUGH) because a lot of the current sales are ending on the 7th.
