I woke up at 5:20am PT and the first thing I did was check my text messages. My mother-in-law had texted me and my wife saying, “Good thing Chicago fell through.” She was referring to a work trip we were supposed to take but got postponed last week.
The first thing I feared was a terrorist incident in the Windy City or another tornado. See video below from Monday.
BREAKING: Tornado confirmed on the ground at O’Hare airport in Chicago.
A plane is sitting on the runway at Chicago O’Hare right now and everyone’s phones receive multiple tornado warnings.
Captain announced that air traffic control and ground control have evacuated.
Plane is… pic.twitter.com/TaKAxn657N
— LockharTVMedia (@LockharTVMedia) July 16, 2024
Then I looked at my breaking news notifications and the alert from CNN read: “Global outages: Tech disruptions worldwide have hit airlines, banks, businesses and even emergency services. Critical services affected: 911 services are down in several states in the US. Major US airlines, including Delta, United and American Airlines, have had flights grounded, and airlines in Europe and Asia are also seeing disruptions.”
The tech outage is being called “the largest IT outage in history” and you can read updates as the situation unfolds here.
I looked up the flight from Chicago to L.A. that my family and I were supposed to be boarding if our trip had gone as originally planned. As you can see from the screenshot above, the first three American Airlines (AA) flights, including ours, were cancelled. No doubt my mother-in-law was right – it’s a good thing we weren’t flying today and instead flew from Toronto to L.A. (via Chicago) on Wednesday – because there are not many empty seats for agents to put customers in.
The other day, I was talking to the AA agent in the lounge about how the airline was offering up to $525 per person (see screenshot above) to take a later flight since our plane was oversold. She said, “Before you take it, ask which flight they’re going to put you on because there are no empty seats.” Keep in mind, this was on Wednesday, which is midweek and one of the slowest days of the week. Not a Friday, which is one of the busiest.
yall cant even really see how bad this shit is here but omg #jfk pic.twitter.com/iWikrN5dUD
— rizzy mcguire❣️ (@ITgurlMia) July 19, 2024
One of my many cousins texted me asking for advice because she’s flying to France tonight on Delta and she saw the out of control check-in lines (see embedded video above).
I then checked FlightAware.com and saw that there have already been over 3,200 canceled flights (2,019 to/from the U.S.) and 29,000 delayed flights (5,300 in the U.S.). See screenshot above. Delta, American, United are leading the way. Delta has 642 cancellations and American has 336, United 306. Endeavor (210), Spirit (211), KLM (107), Turkish (91) and Republic (86) are up there too.
I looked up my cousin’s flight and it was still going out on time. She tried to change it but Delta was charging over $1,000 per person despite their travel waiver. The hold time to speak to an agent was 8 hours and they weren’t responding via their app or X.
My advice to her was that since her flight wasn’t until later today, to keep checking the status, go to the airport extra early and fly with carry-on only. I said if today’s flight goes out, it will probably have empty seats since so many passengers would have missed their connecting flights.
So if you’re traveling today, I would follow the advice above. I also have more advice here: What to do in weather delays and flight cancellations.
One of my tips in the post mentioned above is to check with the airline to see if they’ve adjusted their change policies so you can rebook without a penalty and fly when there won’t be any hassles. Here’s a list of airline policies: Air Canada | Alaska | American Airlines | Delta | Frontier | United.
This is what Delta is stating on their website: Global IT Outage | Delta Air Lines: “A disruption caused by a Global IT Outage is resulting in a Ground Stop affecting our operation systemwide. Check flight status frequently for up-to-the-minute information about your flight plans, or get updates sent directly to your mobile device or by email with On-Time Flight Notification.”
Delta also states: “When rebooked travel occurs on or before July 24, 2024 in the same cabin of service as originally booked, the fare difference will be waived. A fare difference may apply when the waiver is class to class restrictive and the original booking class is not maintained in the rebooked itinerary.”
Obviously, this is not the case for my cousin, who tried to change her flight to the 22nd since the 19th and 20th were already full. Delta used to have a dedicated number with priority for travel within 48 hours but it’s not working (1-855-548-2505) and my cousin’s friends called Delta’s French phone numbers and they aren’t working either so calling a foreign country doesn’t always work.
It’s a real cluster out there today. Let’s hope it clears up quickly since it’s peak travel season and there’s a record number of Americans flying. Just 12 days ago, the TSA broke their all-time record for the number of passengers passing through security checkpoints in the United States.
The good news is that if you’re flying JetBlue like my brother is today, there are no issues but you can bet those flights will be full as passengers from other airlines are scrambling to find any open seats.
I’ll leave you with this final advice to help you navigate the chaos:
1. Sign up for flight notifications.
2. If your flight is delayed, canceled or you don’t want to deal with the chaos, switch your tickets to a later date.
3. Leave plenty of time to check-in at the airport. This may mean giving yourself an EXTRA hour or two.
4. Fly with carry-on only. You’ll have the most flexibility this way, especially if you have to change flights.
5. Pack snacks, refill your water bottles post-security and pack your patience.
KEEP READING
–How to make sure the TSA Precheck checkmark is on your boarding pass
–Did you know your electronic devices should always be charged when going through security?
–10 airport security hacks every traveler needs to know
–Mom shares hilarious reason she’s not getting TSA Precheck anytime soon
–How to get a full bottle of water through airport security
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