What are blackout days?

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Blackout dates are periods of time when you cannot use special offers, discounts, rewards or other promotional offers made by a company. In the travel industry, this usually refers to times of the year when a person cannot use free award travel or reduced fare offers. These times will usually be indicated by the travel agency. Some other companies that offer rewards or incentives interconnected with travel, such as credit card companies that offer airline award miles based on purchases made using the card, will use these times to deny use of those rewards. Blackout dates are also often used by other types of businesses, such as retail stores or offices, to indicate periods of time when vacation cannot be requested by employees.

One of the most common uses of blackout dates is to ensure that special fares or promotions offered by a travel company or airline cannot be used in a way that causes the company to lose money. This is typically done at particularly popular holiday times, such as major holidays. In the US, this includes the week of Thanksgiving and a week or two around Christmas and New Years. An airline with these times listed as blackout dates would likely not allow passengers to use frequent flyer miles or similar offers for flights during these times.

The basic idea behind blackout dates is that such times of year already tend to be popular for travel and no extra incentive is needed. In other words, people are likely already traveling, so less effort is required to attract customers. Some offers may still be offered, usually to compete with other airlines or travel agencies, but promotional offers that are often good throughout the rest of the year may be denied during blackout dates. Different airlines and travel companies may set different blackout periods and some companies may actually eliminate these dates to attract customers.

Blackout dates can also be used internally by other companies. These dates are typically used to indicate periods of time when employees cannot request time off or take time off. Such dates are often similar to airline blackout dates and can usually coincide with major holidays and similar events. Many companies will not necessarily have fixed dates for these times, but instead will establish blackout periods to coincide with times that other employees have already requested, to ensure adequate headcount for day-to-day operations.

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