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Old Feb 6, 2015, 8:30 am
  #1  
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Delta Business Class Blackout?

I'm looking at flying JFK-NCE-JFK in June and while there are plenty of Business Class REV seats, there are no mileage seats.

Does Delta "Blackout" seats? I was under the impression that they make all rev seats open for redemption
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Old Feb 6, 2015, 8:42 am
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Do you mean at low level? There are seats available everyday but at higher redemption levels.
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Old Feb 6, 2015, 8:22 pm
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Until Jan 1 DL has frequently "whited out" award seats. N/A at any level, while 100s avail as revenue. Not sure if so is still the case now.
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Old Feb 6, 2015, 11:47 pm
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Originally Posted by emrdoc
Do you mean at low level? There are seats available everyday but at higher redemption levels.
Not exactly. Try June 19, June 22, or June 23, for example. No award tickets available at any level, but Delta will be more than happy to sell you a cash ticket on those days.
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Old Feb 7, 2015, 5:11 am
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Originally Posted by javabytes
Not exactly. Try June 19, June 22, or June 23, for example. No award tickets available at any level, but Delta will be more than happy to sell you a cash ticket on those days.
I saw the same thing. Perhaps the OP will return and clarify if he meant 'no saver seats in June' or 'no award seats at all on a specific date in June.'
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Old Feb 7, 2015, 7:11 am
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They claim they don't, but they do.
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Old Feb 7, 2015, 7:36 am
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Originally Posted by javabytes
Not exactly. Try June 19, June 22, or June 23, for example. No award tickets available at any level, but Delta will be more than happy to sell you a cash ticket on those days.
Thanks for the confirmation that DL still engages in the nefarious practice of "white outs" (while claiming that it doesn't have award travel "black out") dates.

It could be worse than just three days. In the past I've seen periods as long as 3 consecutive weeks, and covering 2/3s of time over nearly 3 months, on three daily flights every single award seat blacked out, while 500+ revenue seats remain for sale practically every day (the latter number I am guessing, based on this being some 10 months in advance and there being 1 x 747, 1 x A330 and 1 x 767 on the route, and with all revenue classes having 9+ availability).
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Old Feb 7, 2015, 7:40 am
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AFAIK DL doesn't forbid award travel systemwide on any date, which could be regarded as the claim that there are no blackouts.

However, particular flights might not have award inventory, although I had had the impression that high level award tickets were last seat availability.

Nevertheless, the nonstop NCE flights do tend to fill with people willing to pay a lot of money for their tickets, so I'm not surprised that it's tough to find award seats for this flight in high season.
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Old Feb 7, 2015, 7:44 am
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Originally Posted by HongKonger
They claim they don't, but they do.
At one time they claimed every seat availability but when have they done that lately?
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Old Feb 7, 2015, 7:47 am
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
However, particular flights might not have award inventory, although I had had the impression that high level award tickets were last seat availability.
No, it's not. At least not so always. In the past there's been periods of 2-3 months with most dates (as much as 3 consecutive weeks) completely whited out on the 3x daily HNL-NRT flights (both Y & J) - completely N/A of any awards, at 10-11 months out, while still easily over 500 revenue seats (at a guess) are available (or at least all revenue classes show 9(+) availability).

It sounds like this practice is still continuing.
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Old Feb 7, 2015, 7:54 am
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
AFAIK DL doesn't forbid award travel systemwide on any date, which could be regarded as the claim that there are no blackouts.

However, particular flights might not have award inventory, although I had had the impression that high level award tickets were last seat availability.

Nevertheless, the nonstop NCE flights do tend to fill with people willing to pay a lot of money for their tickets, so I'm not surprised that it's tough to find award seats for this flight in high season.
You have this impression because they said it was last seat availability. Even so, they've made some flights unavailable on some days. But I don't think I've seen "last seat availability" on the site for at least a year.
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Old Feb 7, 2015, 8:51 am
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Originally Posted by HongKonger
You have this impression because they said it was last seat availability. Even so, they've made some flights unavailable on some days. But I don't think I've seen "last seat availability" on the site for at least a year.
Until a few months ago it still said that (no blackouts/last seat availability) during the award searches (with the old engine, before the move to Polaris).
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Old Feb 7, 2015, 8:55 am
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Originally Posted by HongKonger
You have this impression because they said it was last seat availability. Even so, they've made some flights unavailable on some days. But I don't think I've seen "last seat availability" on the site for at least a year.
I think it was first advertised as a benefit of the three award tiers, with High supposedly being last seat availability. Logically one would hope that with five tiers, the highest level of five would apply to the any seat being sold, but of course that's too much to expect, even with additive pricing.
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