I would take my best guess and argue that the opposite of this is the truth. AF has outstanding availability and I'm sure it is Delta Rev management that is upset about how many "O" class awards they've had to shell out for.

Almost everyone knows that DL J space is abysmal, but up until now AF was the saving grace so people redeemed for AF at low while DL-metal was 2-3x more.

DL in their hyper-search to pinch pennies probably encouraged AF to restrict award space b/c there's no way FB members were redeeming an equal amount of J tix on DL as they only had access to "low-lvl" space, thus DL has to pay out the difference. AF said no thanks DL we prefer to not to dilute our benefit program the way you have and anger our loyal customers plus we already cover our cost on awards by adding massive YQ to the total price. DL said we can't do that b/c it would put us at a competitive disadvantage vs. other US carriers. So DL said to AF; fine keep your availability but drop the price we compensate you or we're cutting off this revenue gravy-train.

And here we sit - the customer stuck in the middle of a compensation dispute being told nothing, but it's an IT glitch and we don't have an ETA for it. What a joke!

The whole tech glitch argument makes zero sense b/c; 1) Y awards on AF are still available, 2) J awards on other DL partners is still available, 3) We're talking about this issue lasting over 1wk so by now its not just Skymiles members but AF execs who notice the issue, 4) AF "O" is still visible in EF & bookable using either FB or AS miles.

Possible outcomes of this mess;

1) DL restrict AF/KL redemptions until AF caves and lowers the rate for being compensated
2) DL adds a YQ charge to AF flights
3) DL caves and returns to the status quo

My money isn't on #3