Slashdot Mirror
United Airlines Passengers Stranded By Computer Outage
From reader Peter McDermott comes word of a computer outage with effects to dwarf those of the one that stranded thousands of US Airways passengers last week. This time, it's United Airlines' systems that are out of commission and unable to handle passenger reservations, leaving passengers stranded all over the U.S. According to Peter, experiencing the resultant delays first-hand at Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., United planes are being sent on — along with their passengers' luggage — to the cities from which they're to leave tomorrow morning, in anticipation of the computer system being fixed in the interim.
It's pretty loose. I've not boarded flights after check-in quite a number of times-- from overbooked flights to having to email a document and missing boarding. My baggage has never been pulled in any of these circumstances. I frequently standby later or later in the day and see my baggage fly on the original flight. YMMV; I've flow 500K on two airlines, but don't think that anything but elite status really matters. US airports remain pathetically insecure -- if you can afford a full first fare, you can make it past security at almost any US airport at any time you want. Just get some skin whitening formula and a fake ID that says your name is "Mitt Romeny" :)