JetBlue True Passes can't be used for Thanksgiving travel?!

General Questions
#1

Can anyone confirm this? I earned two free one-way flights from JetBlue this year; I even took a superfluous cheap trip to Boston this Summer so that I’d earn enough points to have a free cross-country trip for Thanksgiving.

Now I’m on the JetBlue site, and, having confirmed there are seats available on the flights I want to take (I mistakenly went through the entire process before selecting “book an awards flight,” which you apparently have to do first), I tried to book an awards flight, and the result was “sold out” for both dates. Can anyone here point out any language on the site that indicates there are dates which are restricted from their awards program? Their 800 number is ringing busy.

I’m freaking out, cause I was kind of counting on this. Not sure if my family’s worth $600.

#2

No dates, but according to the terms and conditions…

“Award travel is subject to capacity controls and may not be available on all flights.”

#3

Captain Amazing pointed out the verbiage relating to the program’s terms and restrictions. It’s a bit different than legacy frequent flier programs. JetBlue allots a certain number of award seats available per flight, so even though there are revenue seats available for purchase, there may be no award seats left.

Thanksgiving is traditionally a very heavy air travel period; it’s best to book as early as possible. You can expect this year to be even worse in terms of finding a good seat/fare due to huge capacity reductions across the board.

#4

Thanks. I knew I should have booked earlier, but I felt no rush since I wasn’t concerned about price. Lesson learned.

I was able to get a free flight on the Monday after Thanksgiving, so I’ll take an extra day off work, and fork over the $300 for the initial flight. My parents will be thrilled. I may go insane.

#5

Not to disagree with your basic point, but this is how all/most of the legacy ones work too.