AA & Southwest Say Reservations System Down Briefly
DALLAS (AP) - American Airlines and Southwest Airlines say that customers encountered problems booking flights on Tuesday because of a glitch in their reservations systems.
Both airlines said Tuesday that the problem was fixed quickly, and they blamed it on Sabre Holding Corp., which provides reservations-systems technology to airlines. Sabre confirmed the accounts.
"Our customers experienced difficulties accessing Sabre for a short period today, however access has been restored and the system is back on line," said Sabre spokeswoman Nancy St. Pierre. She said that the company regretted the inconvenience.
American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said the outage lasted about 45 minutes and was fixed shortly after noon EDT. Miller said the outage affected all airlines and travel agencies that use Sabre, which was once part of American but later spun off into a separate company.
Southwest also tweeted that the problem had been fixed. United Airlines said it was not affected. United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and US Airways said they use other technology providers and were not affected by the Sabre outage.
Henry Harteveldt, who tracks airlines for Atmosphere Research Group, said he heard from two travel agents who also use Sabre technology and were back in operation after a brief breakdown.
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