For those flying in the northeast today, especially in and out of Boston, it is just not their day (all the more so if there are terroristy-looking, Arab-speaking passengers nearby [2]). The day just got much worse for those flying American Airlines. Via BBG:
- FAA SAYS ALL AMERICAN FLIGHTS GROUNDED AT AIRLINE'S REQUEST
- FAA SAYS AMERICAN GROUNDINGS DUE TO AIRLINE COMPUTER PROBLEMS
- AMERICAN AIRLINES SAYS SABRE RESERVATION SYSTEM OFFLINE
- AMERICAN AIRLINES REPORTS RESERVATION SYSTEM OUTAGE ON TWITTER
- SABRE SAYS THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS WITH AIRLINE BOOKING SYSTEM
- FLIGHTS MAY RESUME AT 5PM EASTERN
Must be the evil Chinese hackers' fault again, and it is about time the government stepped in and regulated the entire Internet, preferably with a kill switch to get rid of all the pesky, fringe elements.
Update from American [3] [3]:
UPDATE as of 3:30pm CDT: Our systems have been fully restored, however we expect continued flight delays and cancellations throughout the remainder of the day. We have made several options available to our customers:
If customers must travel today and are already at the airport, they can rebook on another airline by visiting an American Airlines agent or by going to the other airline’s ticket counter with their electronic ticket number.
If customers must travel today and are not yet at the airport, they can rebook through American Airlines reservations or through another carrier and American will honor the fare difference.
If a customer chooses not to travel today, there will be no charge for reservation changes or a full refund will be provided.
It is important to note we see no evidence that today’s technical outage is related to the tragic events in Boston.
We will continue to provide more information throughout the day as we make progress in resolving this issue. We apologize to our customers and our people for this inconvenience