It seems that computer-related disaster isn’t just for Americans anymore. British Airways passengers worldwide — including here in the U.S. — are being hit with delays after a systems glitch took out its check-in systems overnight.
As NBC News and the BBC report, British Airways passengers in the U.S. faced lengthy delays at check-in and boarding last night and early this morning.
The issue apparently affected check-in systems. That means that once a plane was fully boarded, it could take off and fly safely, but there have been massive delays in getting passengers to the planes to start with. Some passengers received hand-written boarding passes.
Passengers in Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Atlanta tweeted out videos and photos of the delays and backlogs they encountered. And although a BA spokesperson told NBC News that the issue only affected U.S. airports, passengers in Mexico City and Zurich also reported check-in issues and delays.
One passenger waiting to board in San Francisco tweeted a photo of a letter BA distributed to customers waiting there. The letter is headlined, “Check-in Delay due to System Problems.”
It explains, “At this time we are experiencing problems with the computer systems. As a result, in order to continue to check-in, in the absence of the computer system, we will be using a manual fallback process.”
“Initially,” it continues,” this means the customer service staff need approximately thirty minutes to set the process up in order for it to work effectively … once we begin, check-in will be slower than normal, as information has to be recorded by hand.”
This is the airline’s second check-in systems glitch this year; it also had an issue in July.
by Kate Cox via Consumerist
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