What's With All the Blackout Dates
Sep 3, 2003, 10:49 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Oceanside, NY USA
Posts: 1,128
What's With All the Blackout Dates
I have some DM I want to redeem, looked at the Award chart, and was flabbergasted with all the black out dates for domestic awards. There are way more blackouts than AA or America West, don't know about other carriers. Is it the same for United? Sheesh.
Sep 3, 2003, 12:11 pm
#4
Original Member and FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Kansas City, MO, USA
Programs: DL PM/MM, AA ExPlat, Hyatt Glob, HH Dia, National ECE, Hertz PC
Posts: 16,579
Does AA even have blackout dates anymore? Couldn't find them on their website ...
As for America West, they have 17 blackout days in 2003 and 19 in 2004 compared to 9 for both years on US Airways.
Nine blackout dates is not what I would consider a whole lot ... even Southwest's vaunted rapid rewards ticket has 11 blackout days (and no waiver of blackout days for "elite" members, a companion pass holder in the case of Southwest).
As for America West, they have 17 blackout days in 2003 and 19 in 2004 compared to 9 for both years on US Airways.
Nine blackout dates is not what I would consider a whole lot ... even Southwest's vaunted rapid rewards ticket has 11 blackout days (and no waiver of blackout days for "elite" members, a companion pass holder in the case of Southwest).
Sep 3, 2003, 12:40 pm
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: PHL, NYC
Programs: AA PLT, DL SLV, UA SLV, MR LTT, HH DIA
Posts: 10,065
There was a time not more than 5 years ago that points were available for just about all of my first requests, whether it was domestic or European trips. I haven't tried to cash in points in quite a while, though, for US awards. How sad. This is getting like Continental's NONEpass program.
Sep 3, 2003, 5:14 pm
#8
Original Member and FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Kansas City, MO, USA
Programs: DL PM/MM, AA ExPlat, Hyatt Glob, HH Dia, National ECE, Hertz PC
Posts: 16,579
Personally I've found US' award availability to be average at worst ... better than most other programs, but not quite as good as AA which seems to be by far the best of the major full-service carriers (but AA has it's own drawbacks, in particular steep penalties for ticketing within 21 days of travel for an award).
As I already pointed out, though WN's program is nice that there are no capacity controls, they actually have more blackout dates than US.
US is also one of the few with an off-peak domestic award for 20k miles also, another big plus of their program in my experience.
As I already pointed out, though WN's program is nice that there are no capacity controls, they actually have more blackout dates than US.
US is also one of the few with an off-peak domestic award for 20k miles also, another big plus of their program in my experience.