Money Matters, Simplified.
United computer glitch fixed, flights still delayed
by Neka Sehgal - June 19, 2011 - comments
The unexplained computer breakdown that cancelled 31 flights and delayed 105 more Friday night impacted the travel plans of thousands of passengers, many of who are still waiting for connecting flights to get to their destinations.
United Airlines has recovered from the computer glitch that snarled all flight operations leaving thousands of travelers stranded for hours at the nation’s airports Friday.
A technical issue with the "network connectivity" that caused United’s reservation and check-in system to go offline halted all flights for five hours, creating widespread cancellations, forcing many delays and causing undue harassment for fliers at several airports across the airline’s network.
Flights were temporarily grounded at about 7:15 p.m., Friday evening and the issue was resolved just around midnight.
Though operations resumed early Saturday, the airline said disruptions could persist for several days since only few flights could accommodate stranded passengers.
Alexandria Marren, the airline's senior vice president of System Operations Control stated, "While we will be experiencing some residual effect on our flight operations throughout the weekend, United is committed to restoring normal operations as soon as possible.”
A catastrophic failure
United said it did not know the cause of the outage, which is still under investigation.
The unexplained computer breakdown that cancelled 31 flights and delayed 105 more, impacted the travel plans of thousands of passengers, many of who are still waiting for connecting flights to get to their destinations.
Dave Sertich, 29, a financial analyst who slept in a chair at an O'Hare gate Friday night stated, "There were no agents around, no communication to passengers about what was going on, no announcements.”
Jason Huggins, 35, who was on his way back home to Chicago from San Francisco said, "I'm just amazed at how catastrophic the failure was. All the computer screens were blank, just showing the United logo."
"While we will be experiencing some residual effect on our flight operations throughout the weekend, United is committed to restoring normal operations as soon as possible.”-- Alexandria Marren, United Airline’s senior vice president of System Operations Control.
Waiver policy issued
For the inconvenience, United is allowing its stranded customers to change or delay trips without charge this weekend. However, they have to rebook their seats within the limited period of seven days.
United spokesman Charles Hobart stated, "The airline issued a waiver policy permitting customers on affected flights to cancel or rebook their itineraries without penalty.
"United apologizes for the disruption caused to travelers at affected airports and is re-accommodating travelers where necessary."
A word of advise
The airlines advised customers scheduled for flights Saturday to check their status online, print boarding documents and arrive early at the airport.
Moreover, United was also urging passengers who flew Friday night to call Baggage Services at (800) 221-6903 to get information pertaining to their luggage.
The airline is also providing additional information and updates through its website, Twitter account and phone hotlines.
Their website stated, "Customers should continue to manage their reservations on the respective company's website from which their ticket was purchased.
"Customers may also book a new reservation, change an existing reservation or check flight status by calling United Reservations at 800-UNITED-1 or Continental Reservations at 800-525-0280 or their travel agent.”