Airlines were unable to book flights with several major U.S. airlines on Monday, including American, Delta and United Airlines.
When trying to book a flight through the respective booking sites of the airlines, the pages were unable to upload the flights available to the three airlines.
In response to a customer struggling to book a flight, American Airlines tweeted, “Yes, we are aware that the website is not working. We are working hard to resolve these issues.”
Yes, we know the website doesn’t work. We are working hard to solve these problems. Meet us at DMs and we will help you.
– americanair (@AmericanAir) April 5, 2021
Both Delta and United also acknowledged on Twitter that their booking sites didn’t seem to work as well as they should. The cause of the problems has not been determined.
Hello. Sorry, this is currently being resolved. Cammie
– Delta (@Delta) April 5, 2021
We would appreciate your patience as our teams work to resolve this. Please call our teams if you need help in the meantime at 1-800-864-8331. ^ LT
– United Airlines (@united) April 5, 2021
Other major U.S. airlines, such as JetBlue and Southwest Airlines, did not appear to be affected.
“Delta is related to an external provider that is currently resolving technical issues affecting the ability for customers to search for and book flights on Delta.com and the Fly Delta app. Delta customers can still view flights and use the platforms to look for information on flight planning. Sorry for the inconvenience, “Delta said in a statement released to The Hill.
American Airlines also attributed the problems to an external supplier.
“We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience. There was no impact on flight operations and customers were able to check flights through aa.com,” the airline said in a statement to The Hill.
A United Airlines spokesman said customers could still book flights through the airline’s phone system. The spokesman was unable to say when the booking website would be back up and added that the problem could stem from the Google Flights system used by United.
A Google spokesman confirmed to The Hill that there is a “known problem” next to the flight system technology company. They claimed that Google is currently working to implement a solution to the problem.
It is unclear whether American and Delta also use the Google Flights system.
The website’s problems come just days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidelines stating that it was safe for fully vaccinated people to travel by plane. The guidelines would likely be an advantage for the airline industry that has been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The CDC stated that people traveling to the country should not take tests before boarding a flight unless their destination requires a test. CDV-19s should still be made before international flights and masks should be worn on aircraft regardless of vaccination status, the CDC said in its new guidelines.
Delta indicated a slight return to normalcy last week when it announced it would slowly begin reintroducing mid-seats into its flights. The airline had blocked the middle seats when the pandemic began in an attempt to provide better social distancing from flights.
– Updated at 4:54 p.m.