British Airways Computer Issues Cause Check-In Problems, Delays and Cancellations
Throughout the day, British Airways passengers have been facing delays and cancellations on flights around the world because of an IT issue that was first reported on Monday night. Passengers who had flights with the carrier cited the inability to check in at airport kiosks, resulting in mass delays and cancellations. The issues were fairly widespread, although it's unknown exactly how many airports and flights were impacted by the computer problem. As of this writing, however, the carrier says that flights are gradually returning to normal.
Because of the issues, BA was advising travelers on its website to check in for their flights from home instead of at the airport:
Check in may take a bit longer than usual, so we would encourage customers to check in online before they reach the airport.
By Tuesday afternoon UK time, BA updated its website and tweeted that it was checking in customers at London Heathrow (LHR) and London Gatwick (LGW) as normal.
However, the airline is still advising passengers who are flying through London City (LCY) to check the status of their flight online before heading to the airport. It's not clear if that notice is unrelated to BA's outages because of an earlier protest at the airport.
Passengers at airports across the US, including San Francisco (SFO), Chicago (ORD) and Seattle (SEA), among others, reported issues with the check-in kiosks. To compensate, several travelers reported that they were offered snacks.
Although the carrier didn't publicly announce on its Twitter account that it was having issues, customer service agents responded to travelers' complaints directly.
But, BA did have some fun with the issue on Twitter:
This computer issue hits BA not long after several other airlines faced malfunctions earlier this summer. In July, the FAA issued a ground stop on all Southwest Airlines flights after a computer glitch, and in August, Delta canceled more than 1,500 flights due to a power outage.
Was your British Airlines flight affected by the computer issues?
H/T: Mashable