AA system wide grounding initially blaming Sabre issues

[markis10]

American Airlines has announced a system wide grounding off all planes while they sort out issues with Sabre.

 

[Ansett]

It now seems its NOT a Sabre issue more of an AA issue

American Airlines grounds fleet

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Indeed, not Sabre and American issued an apology to Sabre via Facebook earlier.

 

[markis10]

All fixed now apparently, GDS companies must be getting touchy, cannot blame them.

 

[dot]

Interesting article on Gizmodo about the grounding : http://gizmodo.com/5994808/faa-grounds-american-airlines-after-computer-systems-fail

 

[Paddy55]

Interesting article on Gizmodo about the grounding : Over 700 American Airlines Flights Cancelled After a Computer System Fails (Updating)

Two things were interesting to me:

1. AA took the easy way out initially i.e. blame someone else - Sabre countered strenuously and quickly for AA to apologise imho
2. It was the FAA that grounded AA so they don't seem to have gone down voluntarily

Look forward to hearing a bit more about this
Glad I'm not in LAX, ORD or DFW today

 

[eastwest101]

Two things were interesting to me:

1. AA took the easy way out initially i.e. blame someone else - Sabre countered strenuously and quickly for AA to apologise imho
2. It was the FAA that grounded AA so they don't seem to have gone down voluntarily

Look forward to hearing a bit more about this
Glad I'm not in LAX, ORD or DFW today

According to the Dallas Morning News - was all an AA reservation system problem and AA requested the FAA to ground all AA flights:

Computer problems keep American Airlines flights on the ground | Dallasnews.com - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News

By TERRY MAXON
TERRY MAXON The Dallas Morning News Staff Writer
[email protected]
Published: 16 April 2013 11:40 PM


American Airlines had to ground its operations for hours Tuesday after its reservations system misbehaved and prevented employees from checking in passengers and sending out flights.

The stoppage ended by late afternoon, but not before American and partner American Eagle had to cancel an estimated 970 flights, delay many more and inconvenience tens of thousands of travelers across its system. The problem began around 10:30 a.m. and continued into midafternoon before American cajoled its systems into cooperating. The Federal Aviation Administration said it put a ground stop — an order not to take off — on American’s flights at the airline’s request.

“We sincerely apologize to our customers for this inconvenience and thank our team for their extraordinary efforts,” the carrier said in a late-afternoon statement.
It said it didn’t expect many lingering effects past Tuesday night. “Our networking systems have been fully restored, and we are working to return to normal operations. Flights from our hubs and international flights having been restarted, and we will reposition aircraft and crew throughout the evening,” American said. “Despite the magnitude of today’s disruption, we are pleased to report that we expect our operation to run normally, with only a small number of flight cancellations expected tomorrow. We will add additional flights, as needed, tomorrow to ensure our customers are able to continue their travels,” the Fort Worth-based carrier said.

To make amends, American offered to book people who needed to travel Tuesday on other airlines and pay for the fare difference. For those who wanted to delay their trips, American offered refunds or waivers from the usual fee for changing a reservation.

The airline offered no explanation about what caused the problem.

 

[Paddy55]

According to the Dallas Morning News - was all an AA reservation system problem and AA requested the FAA to ground all AA flights:

Computer problems keep American Airlines flights on the ground | Dallasnews.com - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News

By TERRY MAXON
TERRY MAXON The Dallas Morning News Staff Writer
[email protected]
Published: 16 April 2013 11:40 PM


American Airlines had to ground its operations for hours Tuesday after its reservations system misbehaved and prevented employees from checking in passengers and sending out flights.

The stoppage ended by late afternoon, but not before American and partner American Eagle had to cancel an estimated 970 flights, delay many more and inconvenience tens of thousands of travelers across its system. The problem began around 10:30 a.m. and continued into midafternoon before American cajoled its systems into cooperating. The Federal Aviation Administration said it put a ground stop — an order not to take off — on American’s flights at the airline’s request.

“We sincerely apologize to our customers for this inconvenience and thank our team for their extraordinary efforts,” the carrier said in a late-afternoon statement.
It said it didn’t expect many lingering effects past Tuesday night. “Our networking systems have been fully restored, and we are working to return to normal operations. Flights from our hubs and international flights having been restarted, and we will reposition aircraft and crew throughout the evening,” American said. “Despite the magnitude of today’s disruption, we are pleased to report that we expect our operation to run normally, with only a small number of flight cancellations expected tomorrow. We will add additional flights, as needed, tomorrow to ensure our customers are able to continue their travels,” the Fort Worth-based carrier said.

To make amends, American offered to book people who needed to travel Tuesday on other airlines and pay for the fare difference. For those who wanted to delay their trips, American offered refunds or waivers from the usual fee for changing a reservation.

The airline offered no explanation about what caused the problem.

Thanks for that eastwest101... imagine the fun cancelling/rescheduling pax on 970 flights! :shock:

 

[cirqueboy]

Ah yep, this really sucked big ones. We were due to fly YYZ-MIA-BOG today. Currently sitting in the lounge at MIA waiting for the flight to BOG. Not a fun day, but it happens. Many hours spent in the MIA lounge.....

What was unexpected is that our AA flight was in F and they put both of us on an AC flight to MIA in F.

Guessing our booking class and status with both OW & AC helped us out