Agreed that there are some legacy issues with a PSS as whole, but that's only by their own doing. Not logically moving towards nTier, too much reliance on legacy platforms, and an unwillingness to better architect a solution.

Let's get this straight... cloud services like FB, Twitter, and instagram are way more transactional than airlines. Yet their outages are more rare and less impactful because they've architected or re-architected apps better ways.

Airlines (and other large orgs to some extent) have resisted this change because they don't think it's worth the investment in moving away from their legacy systems. It won't happen overnight, but it truly has to eventually. SABRE and travelport/worldpan already offer cloud versions of their apps that have a lot of these benefits. So it's not like it's impossible.

It's simply an issue of spending money.

It's likely more about the devil you know vs. the devil you don't. The backend software that banks, airlines, utilities (my industry) use have been vetted for decades (some for close to 50 yrs). The biggest issue with flipping to a new system is not the cost of the upgrade but the unknowns. It many cases it's lower risk to improve the existing system than start at v1.0.

Related to the incident. I agree with others that the true cause will take days. However, if GA Power's statement is accurate a switchgear failure does make sense and, in many environments, the switchgear is a hard to avoid single point of failure. Unless you have redundant wires going to the systems there has to be a point were you switch between primary and redundant systems. This is often done at the switchgear where you are switching the load between the grid and a back-up system(s). It's a fairly simple piece of equipment but the recovery plan is often having a spare to swap in. Based on the fact this was solved in hours and not weeks it could very well be that is exactly what they did. But, it could also be something entirely different.

Finally, having lived as a United flyer (GS) during the heat of their Intergration (that included several computer meltdowns) I am VERY impressed with how Delta has managed this. The only thing I got from UA during these sorts of incidents was a health serving of attitude (search UA's forum for "meltdown" for a sampling). They didn't give out food, didn't provide any real public statements, no CEO same-day video, no vouchers, nothing. My sense here is DL is really trying hard to get things back on track and keep people reasonably happy.

As an electrical engineer that works in critical facilities, I have to say that this is a big failure. A switchgear failure is not an excuse. There should be auto-transfer switches, UPS units, emergency generators, etc. that keep critical equipment online.

My guess - poor maintenance of electrical systems. Which is kinda surprising for someone as regulated as an airline, but then again, this is back-end stuff and not planes in the air. If your systems aren't tested, when something actually happens, you are not going to get the result you intended. My guess - primary power failure was followed by failure of a transfer switch, or batteries, or generator, etc.

Well maybe, but of course it's not that simple. The airlines have legacy systems, business logic, etc dating back something like 50 years at this point. Facebook is 12 years old, Twitter is 10, and Instagram is 6. That alone makes everything much, much more complicated for the airlines.

The airlines actually sell products in a meaningful fashion. There are compliance obligations and contractual obligations (meaning tickets sold to passengers) that must be carefully maintained. That makes things much more complicated than the other examples, where generally speaking you are the product.

And frankly, if fb, twitter, or instagram go down it's not nearly as big of a deal, meaning those companies can generally be less risk averse. When an airline system goes down, people get stranded, cargo gets delayed, unaccompanied minors need to be taken care of, equipment gets out of position, and so on. The other companies generally just need to get the servers operational again and issue an apology.

I'm obviously simplifying things a bit, and I would agree that the airlines have probably underinvested/moved too slowly to update, but social media companies have very little in common with airlines when it comes to technical requirements.

I've been at LAX most of the day. Incredibly poor service, borderline rude. Not a good show. My flight didn't show on monitors and was not updated on app, had to ask a diamond representative to call operations after I was told (twice) it departed even though I was monitoring the gate from the crown room and knew that was not the case.

I wonder when they will start posting delays to tomorrow's flights. I expect long after I am gone to bed.... :(

David

Any word on compensation yet my 1877 ended up cancelled thankfully on SW out of MDW now not bothering to call yet for reimbursement/voucher but curious experience so far?

Question regarding a domestic DL delay after EU departure. We flew LHR-ATL this morning on VS (were ticketed via DL though). That flight was not delayed. Our ATL-MEM has been delayed and rebooked and delayed and rebooked again. We were scheduled to arrive at final destination at 6:24. We now will arrive at 9:40, assuming of course that the flight still takes off (we are on a new flight #). Are we eligible for (EC) 261/2004 compensation for 3+ hour delay?

In short: EU-USA flight no delay, USA-USA flight delay of 3+ hours to final destination.

How would flying on DL have only earned 190 miles when any DL segment is 500 miles minimum.

...good luck with those distance-based miles. How are they with trans-oceanic business cabin redemption? Oh...wait. OK...how are they with Premium Economy redemption to Europe? Oh...yeah. What about coach to Hawaii? Hmmmm...some problems there. Basic economy to Australia....that's right their A320s can't take you there either.

I guess if your idea of award redemption is Cancun or the DR, should serve you well...so long as you will fly their version of coach.

No, because the delayed flight did not depart from the EU.

Yes....$200 voucher for anyone cancelled today or a greater-than 3 hour delay.

Too Big To Fly.

Which Delta flight departing soon from EU can I book now and will be likely cancelled or delayed more than 3 hours ?

Lots of info on Internet that states differently. Anyone else?