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February 10, 2002
Northwest Airlines, Continental and Delta Air Lines are eliminating a major source of complaints from frequent fliers: blackout dates for award travel.
Airlines traditionally bar frequent fliers from booking award travel during holidays and other peak travel periods. In what it claimed was an industry first, in mid-January Northwest said it would drop that ban for all award flights booked after March 1.
That was followed quickly by announcements from the other two carriers.
Last year, Northwest's blackout dates included 12 in the United States plus all summer weekends for travel between the United States and Europe, said spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch.
The end of the ban, however, doesn't mean a guaranteed seat around, say, Thanksgiving. "It just means if there is a seat, you'll be able to book it," said Delta spokeswoman Catherine Stengel.
Airlines usually set aside only a percentage of their seats for frequent fliers. Northwest said only a "limited inventory" of such seats would be available for peak days and destinations.
Stephen Usery, vice president of marketing for US Airways, says lifting a ban on blackout dates creates "false expectations" because "you have the same number of people competing for the seats."
US Airways waives blackout dates only for frequent fliers who log at least 25,000 miles or 25 segments per year under the program.