Official 2014-15 Blackout Dates

TML · Jan 3, 2013

A couple of days ago AGR released its official list of 2014-15 blackout dates:

February 14, 2014

February 17, 2014

April 17-18, 2014

April 21, 2014

May 23, 2014

July 3, 2014

July 6, 2014

August 29, 2014

September 1, 2014

October 10, 2014

November 25-26, 2014

November 29-30, 2014

December 1, 2014

December 20-24, 2014

December 26-31, 2014

January 2-4, 2015

Observations:

-Blackout dates associated with Independence Day are back.

-Once again, the majority of dates surrounding Christmas & New Year's Day are blacked out, despite the fact that December 2014 has exactly the same date structure as December 2008 (blackout dates back then were December 19-21 and 26-28).

Anderson · Jan 3, 2013

I'm not surprised...Amtrak is jammed to the gills at those peak-of-the-peak periods these days. I do wish that they'd let off on "upgrade blackouts" (i.e. the one-class upgrades) a bit more, but that's just me.

Justin · Jan 3, 2013

They're 1 step closer to becoming Us Airways .... Greed!

Anthony · Jan 4, 2013

Justin said:
They're 1 step closer to becoming Us Airways .... Greed!

PRR 60 · Jan 4, 2013

Justin said:
They're 1 step closer to becoming Us Airways .... Greed!

With 19 blackout dates in 2013 verses US Airways 15 blackout dates, Amtrak leading. US has not listed blackout dates for 2014, but with AGR blacking out 29 days in 2014 (over a 50% increase from 2013), I bet they will still be in the lead, and by a wide margin.

Anderson · Jan 4, 2013

Anthony said:
Justin said:

They're 1 step closer to becoming Us Airways .... Greed!

Click to expand...

It's not just greed. Amtrak is flat out of space at peak times now, especially in the sleepers. Boardman is doing what he can where he can, but when you're as squeezed for space as Amtrak is now (and under the gun from Congress to boot), this is what happens. Do note that there are rule-buster awards for higher-tier members; what I expect to see happen in the longer-run is for two or three tiers of awards to emerge, one of which is closer to universally usable but which is far more expensive and another which is cheap (like we have now) but which is more restricted.