I'm ramping up for Thursday along with everyone else: I'm planning on going PHL-LAS on 12/19, LAS-SEA on 12/23, and SEA-PHL on 12/28, the Sunday after Christmas. Two questions:

I assume that I will be able to find availability to use an RR credit for the PHL-LAS leg -- do you think I have any sort of shot on SEA-PHL? (LAS-SEA will likely not be worth using a credit since it will be the cheapest leg) Since that date is a blackout date for the Freedom Award, I'm sort of doubting it.

In that case, do you think that that Sunday will be a sufficiently harried travel day that I might have a chance to VDB on the last flight out of SEA? I would think that usually the Sunday following Christmas would be busy, but this year it seems so late, and I also wonder how many people will be traveling this year.

Thanks for any thoughts you may have on this, and good luck Thursday!