Terry Anzur, a TV news consultant from Los Angeles who was also stranded in Dallas, said American Ai

American Airlines grounded all flights across the United States for several airline flight schedules hours Tuesday airline flight schedules after a key computer system crashed, causing thousands of passengers to be stranded at airports and on planes, including at DFW Airport.
American Airlines grounded all flights across the United States for several airline flight schedules hours Tuesday after a key computer airline flight schedules system airline flight schedules crashed, causing thousands of passengers to be stranded at airports and on planes, including at DFW Airport.
A computer system used to run many daily operations at Fort Worth-based American Airlines failed Tuesday, forcing the nation's third-largest carrier to ground all flights across airline flight schedules the United States for several hours and stranding thousands of frustrated passengers at airports and on planes.
Flights already in the air were allowed to continue airline flight schedules to their destinations, but planes on the ground from coast to coast could not take off. And travelers could do little to get back in the air until the computer system was restored.
American blamed its reservation system, which is used for much more than booking flights. Airlines commonly rely on such systems to track passengers and bags, update flight schedules and gate assignments and file flight plants. The computers also help determine how much fuel to put in an aircraft airline flight schedules or which seats should be filled to balance a plane.
American and sister airline American Eagle had canceled 970 flights airline flight schedules and delayed at least 1,068 more by early evening Tuesday, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.com.The outage began in midmorning and stretched into the afternoon. The systems were fixed by 4:30 p.m., airline spokeswoman Stacey Frantz said.
After initially saying their reservation and booking tool, Sabre, was offline, the airline later clarified and said they were unable to access their reservations system and that the issue was not with Sabre.
Those issues were resolved shortly after 3 p.m., though the airline said the backlog of flights will result in delays for several more hours. Consequently, the airline made the following options available to travelers:
If customers must travel today and are already at the airport, they can rebook on another airline by visiting an American Airlines airline flight schedules agent or by going to the other airline s ticket counter with their electronic ticket number.
Shortly before 3 p.m., officials at DFW Airport implemented their Irregular Operations Concessions Plan and said concessions at Terminals A, B, C and D will be open until at least midnight to accomodate all stranded passengers.
The outage began in midmorning and stretched into the afternoon. The systems were fixed by 4:30 p.m., airline spokeswoman Stacey Frantz said. But even as some flights took off, the airline expected delays and cancellations to persist for the rest of the day.
Tensions are high. A lot of people are getting mad. I've seen several yelling at the American agents, said Julie Burch, a business-meeting speaker airline flight schedules who was stuck at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport waiting for a flight to Denver. Nobody can tell us anything.
Terry Anzur, a TV news consultant from Los Angeles who was also stranded in Dallas, said American airline flight schedules Airlines gate employees were doing everything the old-fashioned, manual way because airline flight schedules their computers were useless.
Once an opossum chewed through a cable in Tulsa, bringing down the whole system. Another time, a worker in the airline's data center used a metal tool instead of one that was rubber-coated, causing a short circuit that disabled substantial parts of the system, Nason 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.
American's problems on Tuesday were reminiscent of what United Airlines passengers endured for several days last year. After merging with Continental, United experienced computer glitches in the combined reservation system. On one day in August, 580 United flights were delayed, and its website airline flight schedules was shut down for two hours. Another outage in November delayed 636 flights.
American's headache occurred as parent company AMR Corp. seeks government airline flight schedules approval to merge with US Airways Group Inc. A merger would let American surpass United to become the world's biggest airline.
American Airlines arrivals are on time 89 percent of the time, while departures are 91 percent on time according to FlightStats.com . The beleaguered company is emerging from bankruptcy protection and is about to file its reorganization plan as it merges with U.S. Airways.