United Terminal Tangle Getting Back to Normal

Kiosks working again, congestion easing

By PEGGY CASSIDY

Updated 1:19 PM CST, Tue, Jul 28, 2009

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Things are starting to get back to normal at the United terminal at O'Hare, but this morning it was a different story.

A United Airlines clerk told passenger Anupy Singla that the operations at O'Hare's United Terminal this morning was like returning to the era of dinosaurs.

Singla showed off her boarding pass that had been handwritten by the clerk, who worked on the phone with a colleague in Washington, D.C., to check in the Canada-bound traveler. The D.C. clerk had access to the airline's computer system that shutdown in Chicago at about 4:30 a.m.

The computer glitch at the O'Hare United terminal left passengers stranded, waiting for boarding passes for their outbound flights, and frustrated by an inability to check-in. At 8 a.m., a line of hundreds of passengers stretched from inside United's terminal to the sidewalk outside.

The airline says they've made some progress in fixing the problem and that, at about 8:45 a.m., automated kiosks began printing boarding passes for travelers. By about 11 a.m., clerks were able to get some computers at the check-in desks to do the same.

Delays of 90 minutes to 2 hours were reported at the hight of the mess, and arriving planes were lining up on the tarmac, waiting for gates to open. About 100 flights were canceled altogether.

Just before noon, United issued this statement:

United’s check-in system issues have been addressed and the number of flights arriving and departing O’Hare is improving. While there will continue to be some delays, we expect to return to normal operations this afternoon. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this morning and recommend they continue to use united.com to check flight status and check-in. Customers may also take advantage of United’s travel waiver if they would like to change their travel plans.

FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said that United had done a ground stop of its planes on its own that ended at 7:55 a.m. The problem began about 5:15 a.m., she said.

Because the outage involved United's ticketing system, Urbanski says the airline is urging customers to monitor their flight status and check-in online before they get to O'Hare.

Passengers are reporting long lines in the terminal.

"Its crazy," said teen traveler Jared Lowell, of Northbrook. The 17-year-old said he'd been waiting for three hours.

"It's ludicrous ... We're not moving," he said. Lowell is traveling to Israel with Jewish Team USA for a teen hockey tournament. He said he was afraid the team will miss their New York connection.

United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said Thursday's outage involved all of United's computers at O'Hare. Urbanski says many flights have been delayed and some may be canceled.

To check flight status, visit FlightAware.com or FlyChicago.com