Originally Posted by
SAPMAN
Does that mean if they have 2 flights available (out of the total routings) for Award travel each day, they are true to their word of No Blackout Days?
I'm not clear what you mean. To me, "their word of No Blackout Days" sounds like a reference to RR 2.0. We were discussing the fact that there are no systemwide blackout days for capacity-controlled SAs.
If you also had SAs in mind, I don't know why you used a number as high as
two in your hypothetical. I would surmise that, technically speaking, if there is even
one seat on one flight (out of 3,000+ departures) on a FA blackout date that is available for SA booking, then the no
systemwide blackout date claim is satisfied, slimy as that may be. Of course shenanigans like that are far too dangerous given the risk of litigation expense, so they are unlikely to occur.
Originally Posted by
SAPMAN
And where are these $39 non-stop fares on busy days?
I was referring to routes on which the lowest WGA fare is commonly $39/$49/$59. For specific blackout dates in the current schedule it is mostly too early to find such fares, but here is one example: Saturday 26-Nov-2011, the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, is one of the FA blackout dates for that month (November 23, 26, 27, and 28.) Flight #1405 is currently for sale at $39, yet the web site currently displays
Date unavailable for Award Booking
for that route on that day.
It seems clear to me that the old bug has returned.
Originally Posted by
SAPMAN
WN speaks with crooked tongue.
I could not agree more.
Originally Posted by
SAPMAN
Award seats are very rare now, even on what I perceive as non-busy days -- although they may open up down the road.
Yes and no. I was seriously looking at burning an award for last minute travel this week. On the one hand I was surprised at how open award booking seemed to be for the Wanna Get Away (outbound) leg. Trouble was, despite trying numerous destinations from two outbound airports, there were essentially zero "Need to get back to the real world" Award seats available. If SWA actually had quality IT contractors, I would have suspected them of using web visitor location sensing technology to selectively zero out Award seat availability, but I know that is light years beyond their expertise. The more likely explanation is that I needed to return on Fri, Sat, or Sun, whereas my outbound would have been midweek.