I've been watching Standard Award availability (both pre- and post-March 1) on a couple of routes for May 27. There have been multiple flights available on both routes up until today. This morning when I logged in and searched for the May 27 flights I received this message:

Date unavailable for Freedom (Standard) Award Booking

My understanding is that the old "Freedom Awards" had certain blackout dates, likely including the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. However, "Standard Awards" have never carried specific blackout dates, just limited availability on a given flight. I also thought that Freedom Awards were no more; regardless, I have never and do not currently have any Freedom Awards. Now it appears that WN has now applied Freedom Award blackout dates to Standard Awards.

Has anyone else run into this issue? I'm hoping that this is just another website glitch that will be fixed at some point, and that Standard Awards are not really subject to blackout dates.