Burj

Thank you! This is super useful!

reed2x

Had an interesting conversation with a delta rep about the interpretation of the blackout date rules.

I was working on an itinerary
Sin-icn(ke) stopover (non blackout date)
Icn-dtw-atl (dl) (ke blackout date)
ATL-nrt-sin(dl)

The award mileage split 120,000+70,000

However if I moved the icn-dtw-atl on delta flights to a non KE blackout date the agents computer spit out mileage at 120,000.

loyalStarwoodfan

CI blacking out almost the entire summer and most of December is pretty tragic. Makes me wonder why they're even part of the alliance to begin with.

RealHJ

CI is not doing it, Delta is unilaterally blocking it.

The exact same dates you can book award flights on CI no problem using other SkyTeam airlines, such as AF/KL (try the FB search on AF/KL site and you will see lots of CI flights on CI routes during the Delta imposed blackout dates -- and that makes sense, as then there are no DL FF flights booked, so for all other SkyTeam airline customers the DL black out dates have far more CI availability.)

The real CI blackout dates are, just like for KE, few and far inbetween and only between certain zones, often in just one direction. For the actual dates and zones/directions, see here: http://www.china-airlines.com/en/club/club_mi_42.htm

I mean, it's not perfect, still lots of summer is blocked, true... but, not system wide, and usually different sets of dates for different directions (e.g. June 25 - Aug 31 for Asia to N.A., while June 1 to July 31 for N.A. to Asia), and sometimes just for departures from one airport (e.g., AMS).

medellinfein

GREAT post. ^

Studio54

Thanks, this is really useful! DL sucks for imposing all those blackout dates for its members!

MegatopLover

Anyone have blackout dates that go into January 2013?

Time to start looking for Christmas-New Year's tix, so considering options for early Jan. 2013 flights home.

bspn

Can anyone confirm if there are blackout dates for 2012 on MU? I called Delta, the agent doesn't seem to know it. Thanks.

RealHJ

There are none. MU eliminated blackout dates at the end of 2011.^ If it's available then you can book it.

UA vs NW

MU is very generous in terms of award seats availability transpacific; however, MU does not seem to open award seats for domestic Chinese routes far in advance (e.g. my common route PVG-CTU, MU does not open award seats for coach/business class far in advance).

Updated information for blackout dates for KE for 2013 is as below:

Korean Air

December 07, 2012 to January 06, 2013
February 07, 2013 to February 12, 2013 (February 10 - Chinese New Year)
March 01, 2013 to March 03, 2013
May 17, 2013 to June 30, 2013
July 19, 2013 to August 25, 2013
September 14, 2013 to September 23, 2013
October 03, 2013
October 05, 2013 to October 06, 2013
December 07, 2013 to December 31, 2013

mnredfox

Argh, blackout dates strike again. Thanks DL.

mnredfox

Ha, got another DL agent telling me that I can't find award seats on MU cause of blackout dates. Then she quickly backed away from that and said "nothing available."