Originally Posted by
rylan
Probably wouldn't matter even if travel could occur later, since you'd need available inventory to confirm the upgrade and actually use/close the cert prior to expiration. I'd expect the overwhelming majority of these certs to end up going to the gate.
It will matter even more then. Frequently I would use my SWU on a future flight dated past the cert expiration date that had availability space (up to almost a year). You no longer can do this; so you’ll to have to be careful and use your GU and RU with plenty of time in front of the expiration date. Especially if your waitlisted and end up not using the cert.
The expanded fare classes on the RUs and GUs are great; but considering that you can't use EF for award searches any longer you will need to give yourself more time to find a flight with availability (with delta online phone support). It will be best to redeem the certs close to use.