July 19, 2024 is quickly earning the moniker of being when the largest IT outage in history happened. Here’s one story of its impact along with some tips that may be useful for anyone reading this.
Background
The day before, on July 18th, my husband boarded his red-eye flight out of Ontario International airport (ONT) on his way to Washington Dulles International airport (IAD) with a layover at Denver International airport (DEN). He was headed to a weekend church retreat about another 2.5 hours away from IAD where he was the guest speaker at all their sessions. After sending him off, I went about my usual evening routine and went to bed expecting to hear from him the next morning that all went well, that he was safely at IAD and that he was on route to the retreat location.
The Disruption
However, that was not to be the case. As he was at DEN during his layover waiting to board his connecting flight to IAD, the IT outage happened and all the airline systems went down.
- All of the flights for that airline were cancelled
- There was no timeline for recovery
- There were no alternate options for rebooking another flight on the same day
- There was no guarantee he would reach the final destination in time
- And there was no way to know how he could retrieve his checked luggage if he were to make alternate plans
- At this time, the full extent of the problem was still mostly unknown
Call to Action
Eventually my husband called me and got me out of bed at an ungodly hour that I will not mention here. His phone battery was running low. He couldn’t get much information at the airport. And he needed to make some decisions on what to do next. So then we together started working through the steps.
Eventually we managed to get him booked on a direct flight to IAD with a different airline (albeit several hours later than initially planned) and he got his checked-in luggage (even though it travelled in a different flight than his) and he still managed to have some limited participation at the retreat’s first session in the evening.
Tips and Tricks
Instead of penning every single details, let me summarize for you the essentials of how we managed to get the outcome we wanted focusing on the common tips and tricks that might help us or you in other similar situations.
Leverage multiple channels of communication with the airline
During the whole period of trying to get answers and figure out our options, the key in helping us getting the information was to leverage every form of communication channel available to us.
At the airport, my husband was able to:
- interact with the airline staff at the counters,
- talk to fellow passengers,
- hear the announcements being made, while also,
- using his phone to check status online on his airline’s mobile app.
From home, with better internet access and multiple devices, I was able to:
- look up the latest breaking news,
- look up information on the airline website,
- make flight changes online ,
- research all possible flight options,
- be on hold to talk to someone from the airlines (my wait time was close to 2 hours),
- engage the airlines chat assistance
Be flexible and consider all options
In situations like this when the options are limited and the demand is way higher than supply, you just have to be flexible to face the reality of the situation and not rule out any option. Be willing to “sign up” for more than one option and then after the situation is more stable, adjustments can be made. In our case, these were the options available to us:
- Rebook the flight from DEN to IAD via another route provided by the airline even though it would have meant another layover and not reaching IAD until late that night. Even though this was not a favorable option, we went ahead and selected this initially since that was the only flight left for same day. All other flights were for the next day.
- Take the first leg of the rebooked flight but take another flight from that airport to the final destination since the layover there was long.
- Consider a totally different airline if it offered a good route and schedule.
- This option does involve additional costs but you can use these tips to find the best airfare.
- This is the final option we selected because given the circumstances, the schedule was a higher priority for us today. Being the main speaker at an event that impacted several other attendees, it was important that he made it there on time. If this was an event which he was simply attending then our decision would have been different.
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Use a tracking device to locate your luggage
If you are checking in luggage, you must must must pack a tracker in it so if it ever gets lost, you have a way of tracking it. Thankfully we put an AirTag inside his luggage and it saved the day. And this was the single reason why we were able to locate his luggage when it arrived at IAD.
- At the airport counter, my husband was told that the luggage will arrive at IAD in another flight but he wasn’t given much info on what other flight or when.
- When I managed to talk to an airline agent over the phone, I was told that the luggage would arrive at IAD on the rebooked flight which means it would arrive hours later after he gets there. But this would mean he would already be 2.5 hours away at the retreat location and not be able to make a trip back just to pick up his suitcase.
- When I managed to chat with an airline agent from the baggage department, I was told that the luggage will be sent on IAD a whole day later on the same flight he was originally scheduled for.
However, this whole time, we had been able to keep an eye on the location of the suitcase via the AirTag and for the most part it showed that the suitcase was on the DEN airport tarmac just outside the airline terminal my husband was at. Then the location stopped refreshing regularly but every now and then it would refresh and gave me various locations such as Kansas, then Missouri and then Indiana. So, this gave us a clue that it was already on the move despite the mis-information I was given by the airline agents.
Eventually it showed as having arrived at IAD. By this point in time, my husband had already landed at IAD and had left the airport planning to go shop for some essentials he’d need. But he was able to quickly turn around and return to the airport.
While he was driving back I managed to contact the airline via chat once again but this time I was given a link to be able to track the luggage and it showed the flight that was responsible for transporting the suitcase. So, then we were able to quickly locate the baggage claim for that flight and voila – his luggage was just coming through the baggage claim. Success!!!
Imagine the wild goose chase we would have had if it wasn’t for the AirTag to tell us exactly where the suitcase was!!!
In Conclusion
Well, first of all I wholeheartedly wish none of us ever find ourselves in situations like this where we have to scramble to re-arrange our travel plans. But if we ever do, hope these tips will help make life a little smoother.
Happy travels.
Jubila 365 