Update: The FAA has lifted the ground-stop, however, operations continue to be delayed across the system.
United experienced a systemwide ground-stop this morning due to a computer glitch Wednesday morning.
Apparently all mainline flights in the system were affected. Some planes were boarded manually, others had to return to the gate after pilots were unable to receive their flight plans.
The FAA listed the cause as “user request due to automation issues.”
Per NBC News, United confirmed the issue shortly after 9AM:
“We experienced a network connectivity issue this morning,” United confirmed in a statement after 9 a.m. “We are working to resolve this and apologize to our customers for any inconvenience.”
Reports are that this is affecting all flights within the system affecting thousands of passengers. United is claiming that all connections will be fine since every flight is equally delayed, making rebooking unnecessary.
A ground stop nationwide, say @united agents, due to computer systems down. Will impact flights all day. pic.twitter.com/dE470dJSFi
— Janet Shamlian (@JanetShamlian) July 8, 2015
#BREAKING @United flights grounded nationwide after huge computer failure. Check out the lines at @Bradley_Airport! pic.twitter.com/NDanzIhGor
— Heidi Voight (@HeidiVoight) July 8, 2015
Bottom Line
United has had surprisingly large number of these so-called “glitches” since the merger was completed back in March of 2012. Most of them have only lasted a few minutes, though this one seems to have carried on for awhile.
It does beg the question as to whether this plays into the fact that American recently trounced United almost 2 to 1 in a poll regarding which airline One Mile at a Time readers prefer to fly. 😉
Any readers out there stuck at the airport? Or on a plane?
Here's a change I'd like - fire Jeff Smisek.
No rebooking necessary?!? Uhm.... rebook on any other airline other than UA! ;)
So glad last time I flew them was 20 years ago. It would be great if Emirates just buy them and turn them in a 21st century airline. For now, they live in the Stone Ages. Oh, and they say they offer international first class. LOL!!!! What a joke!!!
"United is claiming that all connections will be fine since every flight is equally delayed, making rebooking unnecessary."
I call BS on this statement.
1) I doubt that any other carrier that you are connecting to will delay their flights so united can catch up.
2) If the delays are long enough united will start to cancel flights
@bricksoft
Never mind that this applies to mainline only, meaning express connections WILL be affected.
@Dan
"Never mind that this applies to mainline only, meaning express connections WILL be affected."
So true....Especially given the fact that 52% of UA customers flies on at least 1 or more UAX branded flights these days when traveling...
(per UA Investor Relations Summaries)
Maybe this is part of some coordinated cyberterrorism attack. The NYSE just halted all trading activity due to a mysterious "technical glitch" and now the Wall Street Journal's site is down.
UA does have its issues. Though I imagine a primary reason OMAAT readers voted more towards AA is due to the almost complete lack of UA reviews for some years, ever since Ben had his UA MP account terminated.
This is rather embarrassing. Wish United would've left Continental alone.
I am not a conspiracy theorist. But isn't that awkward that both of NYSE and United system halted today?
Something weird is going on...I'm hoping the NYSE and United thing is just a weird coincidence...
If not- we all know that United is the worst airline in the US, so...yeah.
"United is claiming that all connections will be fine since every flight is equally delayed, making rebooking unnecessary."
LOL! I have a cousin whose gullibility is sort of a family joke; she'll believe absolutely anything! But even she wouldn't buy this.
I would like to read the official response of Star Alliance partners to United's statement that no re-booking is needed for the thousands of travelers flying UA to connect with them. An oopsy moment from UA PR department.
@Eric I would argue that it has less to do with trip reports, and more to do with the fact that United has a very poor mileage program compared to that of AA, and most readers of this site are interested in redeeming miles for the best possible value.
@Joe you're smoking crack if you think AA is a far better program! Not that AA is bad, but UA is far above AA in terms of the quantity of award partners and locations serviced by the same; generous routing, stopover, and open jaw rules; and lately, better make MileagePlus extremely valuable - at worst, it's equal in utility to AA and for most people is much more valuable than AA.
Nevertheless, Lucky's ban from...
@Joe you're smoking crack if you think AA is a far better program! Not that AA is bad, but UA is far above AA in terms of the quantity of award partners and locations serviced by the same; generous routing, stopover, and open jaw rules; and lately, better make MileagePlus extremely valuable - at worst, it's equal in utility to AA and for most people is much more valuable than AA.
Nevertheless, Lucky's ban from UA is no longer deniable and the dropoff of UA reviews happened coincident with that event. Though I suppose OMAAT's fanboys/girls will just continue to swallow the party line regardless.