Southwest Glitch Continues To Create Headaches At Bay Area Airports
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – The computer glitch that stranded thousands of Southwest Airlines travelers on Wednesday continued to wreak havoc on summer vacation plans Thursday, though issues were not as severe.
80 Southwest Airlines passengers spent the night in Mineta San Jose International Airport because of a technology outage that caused cancellations and delays of the airline's planes Wednesday, an airport spokeswoman said.
Airport officials were able to make some accommodations for the travelers and things are getting back to normal Thursday morning, airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said.
Twelve Southwest flights were canceled and 11 flights delayed at the San Jose airport Wednesday, Barnes said.
Southwest Airlines officials are telling passengers Thursday to arrive early at airports nationwide because of the possibility of long lines.
Most systems were back online Thursday morning but travelers should check flight status information on Southwest.com since more than 300 flights had been canceled, airline officials said.
Long lines exist Thursday morning at Oakland International Airport, where Southwest operates out of Terminal 2, airport spokeswoman Keonnis Taylor said.
Out of Oakland, 21 Southwest flights had been canceled as of shortly after 9 a.m. At Mineta San Jose International Airport, nine Southwest flights had been canceled. Two flights had been canceled out of San Francisco International Airport.
Airline officials said they will give passengers flexible rebooking accommodations through Sunday.
Nearly 700 flights were canceled Wednesday and hundreds more were delayed as a result of the outage.
Southwest Airlines was re-booking flights free of charge because of the major inconvenience to thousands of travelers.
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