Updated Delta Award Travel Blackout Dates (KE, CI, AE) for 2013
 

Kudos to RealHJ for making the 2012 thread, linked here.

KE (Korean Air)
07 Dec 12 to 06 Jan 13
07 Feb 13 to 12 Feb 13
01 Mar 13 to 03 Mar 13
17 May 13 to 30 Jun 13
19 Jul 13 to 25 Aug 13
14 Sep 13 to 23 Sep 13
03 Oct 13
05 Oct 13 to 06 Oct 13
07 Dec 13 to 31 Dec 13

CI (China Airlines) and AE (Mandarin Airlines)
10 Dec 12 to 31 Dec 12
01 Jan 13 to 04 Jan 13
01 Jun 13 to 31 Aug 13
10 Dec 13 to 31 Dec 13

Any info on MU?

MU doesn't have blackout dates anymore.

In the summer MU availability is not necessarily every day, but you can get 33E business seats (the nice truly 180 degree flat ones) on many peak summer travel dates.

Are those blackout dates for any routing? For example, for KE is it for intra Asia awards as well, or only to/from US?

DL's policy is to black out all KE routes if any KE route is at peak rates for SkyPass members on that day. This may not always be properly implemented on DL.dumb, but phone agents impose the blackout pretty reliably.

Where is the source for the OP?

delta.com. Click on the fare rules when doing a non DL award booking. Then it is just copy and pasted here and line breaks put in.

Are there blackout dates for CZ?

No. Just KE and CI (and their subsidiary AE). That doesn't necessarily mean there aren't virtual blackout dates where they make little to no inventory available, but there are no formal blackout dates.

Anyone ever hear of blackout dates on AeroMexico?

As I said in your thread, no. Do a booking including a partner flight on DL.dumb and pull up the fare rules. It will show all of the blackout dates.

2014 blackout dates
 

Have the 2014 blackout dates been released yet? Particularly interested in KE, CZ, MU and CI for the first half of 2014 up to and including June/July.

CI/AE have not been posted yet, but KE's are:

07DEC 13 THROUGH 05JAN 14
29JAN 14 THROUGH 03FEB 14
03MAY 14 THROUGH 06MAY 14
16MAY 14 THROUGH 01JUL 14
18JUL 14 THROUGH 24AUG 14
05SEP 14 THROUGH 10SEP 14
03OCT 14 THROUGH 05OCT 14
09OCT 14
11OCT 14 THROUGH 12OCT 14
10DEC 14 THROUGH 31DEC 14

The easiest way to check KE is honestly to just go to the SkyPass page that lists the peak dates. If your desired date is a peak date for SkyPass on any route, DL will consider it a blackout date for all routes. CZ and MU no longer have blackout dates (although of course they may have little to no availability on certain dates as determined by revenue management).

Thank you. KE is out for me as my dates are blackout dates.
As a follow-up then:
1. Is EF still the best method to search for CZ and MU availability?
2. I assume that if I am able to find availability on CZ/MU then I will need to call DL directly to book? IIRC, dl.com award calendar still doesn't display CZ/MU inventory?