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Old Aug 9, 2016, 1:04 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: TheLifeOfA_NKCM
As most of us ...well, all of us, know, there was a power failure at ground ops in ATL on Monday (2016-08-08) at 2:39AM which lead to mass-cancellations and delays and rebookings spanning as far as next Sunday (2016-08-21) as of Aug 9. Passengers didn't hesitate to display their dissapointment, Twitter, ACS, and DL phone lines were ambushed with customers. In an effort to keep our fellow flyers informed on the incoming changes and information, this Wiki was formed.

You may all feel free to edit it as your leisure as we continue to watch this develop..

If you are currently at an airport right now, your information on the ongoing events and current situation there is equally as valuable. Thanks for your input.

If you have part of an article in your post, please cite it with a URL to it's
origin.

Airport & Support Situation.
.
NRT: Foam or Blowup Pad, Crackers, and water given out to customers for sleeping prior to hotel voucher last night
MSP: "Security Lines best since reconfiguration"
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Note:
Some passengers are reporting long waiting queues on DL phone lines. If possible avoid contacting DL CSR by phone (DM and medallion lines are also expected to have a notably longer wait as well) and instead redirect att'n to Twitter which has been said to be notably quicker than other means of assistance, including Need Help Centers and Gate Agents. Fly Delta and Delta.com should also be permitting rebooking on to other flights at this time. If you are unable to take advantage of any of these methods, express add'l patience

Delta Related Updates:
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August 11th, 2016 // 11:00AM ET - Flights OPs Return to Normal

Flight operations have returned to normal following Monday’s outage, airline officials said at noon today. Delta started the day with roughly 25 mainline flights canceled—some due to bad weather in the Midwest—and no additional cancellations are anticipated.

“The airline is back on its feet, moving past this week’s disruption and operating normally,” said Dave Holtz, S.V.P. - Operations and Customer Center. “Running a reliable operation is something we pride ourselves on and frankly, that didn’t happen this week. But our teams have worked tirelessly to bring back the dependable airline our customers have known us to be and have come to expect from us.”

SLC.jpgWith the impact of the power loss is in the rearview mirror, the airline is carefully monitoring the development of a weather system that may hit the eastern third of the U.S. later today, with the possibility of air traffic control-related delays possible in the Northeast. No additional cancellations as a result of weather are expected, however.

The airline plans to fly more than 610,000 people today. By noon Thursday, nearly 2,200 flights had departed with more than 85 percent departing within 15 minutes of the scheduled departure time.

Even so, customers traveling today should check the status of their flight at delta.com or the Fly Delta App. Delta's travel waiver has been extended through Thursday.

Monday morning an uninterrupted power source switch experienced a small fire which resulted in a massive failure at Delta’s Technology Command Center. This caused the power control module to malfunction, sending a surge to a transformer outside of Delta, resulting in the loss of power. The power was stabilized and power was restored quickly. But when this happened, critical systems and network equipment didn’t switch over to backups. Around 300 of about 7,000 data center components were discovered to not have been configured appropriately to avail back-up power. In addition to restoring Delta’s systems to normal operations, Delta teams this week have been working to ensure reliable redundancies of electrical power as well as network connectivity and applications are in place.
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August 10th, 2016
Travel waiver impacted dates now extended to include August 11th
https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...em-outage.html
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4:30PM ET // August 10th, 2016 - Delta has canceled 317 flights today, none in the last hour. Of 3,100 flights that have departed during the day, about 2/3 left within 30 minutes of their scheduled departure time.

Delta's travel waiver has been extended. The airline has extended its offer of compensation to customers significantly affected by lengthy delays or cancellations. Many customers have already been contacted by Delta.

Delta CEO Bastian: 'This isn't who we are'
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2:30PM ET // August 10th, 2016 - Delta has canceled 311 flights today. About 2,540 flights have departed, 70 percent of those within 30 minutes of the scheduled departure time. Delta operates nearly 6,000 flights a day this time of year.

Delta's travel waiver has been extended. The airline has extended its offer of compensation to customers significantly affected by lengthy delays or cancellations. Many customers have already been contacted by Delta.
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12:30 PM ET // August 10th, 2016 - Delta has added a few more cancellations, bringing the number today to 278. About 1,950 flights have departed, 75 percent of those within 30 minutes of scheduled departure time. Delta operates nearly 6,000 flights a day this time of year.

Delta also extended its offer of compensation to customers significantly affected by delays or lengthy cancellations. Many customers have already been contacted by Delta.
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11:00AM EDT // August 10th, 2016 - Delta officials anticipate returning to a normal operation by afternoon Wednesday following an outage Monday that disrupted the flight schedule, though scattered thunderstorms expected in the eastern U.S. may slow the recovery.

By late morning, Delta had canceled 255 flights while 1,500 flights departed. About 80 percent of those flights departed within 30 minutes of their scheduled time.

Technology systems that allow airport customer service agents to process check-ins, conduct boarding and dispatch aircraft are functioning normally with the bulk of delays and cancellations coming as a result of flight crews displaced or running up against their maximum allowed duty period following the outage.

“We’re in the final hours of bouncing back from the disruption,” said Bill Lentsch, Delta’s Senior Vice President— Airport Customer Service and Airline Operations. “Delta employees have been working around the clock and are committed to bringing the airline back to full strength. We know this has been a rough couple of days for our customers and apologize to those who have experienced our less-than-stellar operation.”

Leaders and employees continue to focus on promptly moving departures at the airline's Atlanta hub, the world's busiest. Delta sent reservations personnel from the corporate headquarters in Atlanta to help customer service agents process customers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. A cadre of additional employees were also positioned throughout the Atlanta airport to help customers get to their flights.

Customers traveling today should check the status of their flight at delta.com or the Fly Delta App. Customers can rebook their flight via the website.

Delta's travel waiver has been extended and the airline continued to provide hotel vouchers to several thousand customers, including more than 2,300 Tuesday night in Atlanta. Delta extended its offer of compensation to customers significantly affected by delays or cancellations. Many customers have already been contacted by Delta.
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7:00AM ET // August, 10th, 2016 - Delta officials anticipate returning to a normal operation by mid-to-late afternoon Wednesday following an outage Monday that disrupted the airline’s flight schedule, though a chance of scattered thunderstorms expected in the eastern U.S. may have the potential to slow the recovery.

Teams across the airline continued work during the overnight hours to bring an end to the impact of Monday’s outage that disrupted operations. Delta will start the Wednesday operation with a little over 150 system-wide cancellations after roughly 800 flights were canceled Tuesday.

Technology systems that allow airport customer service agents to process check-ins, conduct boarding and dispatch aircraft are functioning normally with the bulk of delays and cancellations coming as a result of flight crews displaced or running up against their maximum allowed duty period following the outage.

“We’re in the final hours of bouncing back from the disruption,” said Bill Lentsch, Delta’s Senior Vice President— Airport Customer Service and Airline Operations. “Delta employees have been working around the clock and are committed to bringing the airline back to full strength. We know this has been a rough couple of days for our customers and apologize to those who have experienced our less-than-stellar operation.”

Delta CEO Bastian: 'This isn't who we are'

Leaders and employees continue to focus on promptly moving departures at the airline's Atlanta hub, the world's busiest. Delta sent reservations personnel from the corporate headquarters in Atlanta to help customer service agents process customers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. A cadre of additional employees were also positioned throughout the Atlanta Airport to help customers get to their flights.

Customers traveling today should check the status of their flight at delta.com or the Fly Delta App. Customers can rebook their flight via the website.

Delta's travel waiver has been extended and the airline continued to provide hotel vouchers to several thousand customers, including more than 2,300 Tuesday night in Atlanta. Through noon ET, Delta will extend its offer of compensation to customers significantly affected by delays or cancellations to cover Tuesday. Many customers have already been contacted by Delta agents.

Unaccompanied minors will again be allowed to travel on Delta Wednesday following a temporary stay during the height of the disruption.
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August 9th, 2016 // 6:00 PM EST - Rebooking, Refunds, and Compensation: What Customers Need to Know:

Delta people worldwide are working around the clock to take care of customers affected by the disruption of airline operations. Below are updates to assist customers with questions regarding rebooking a flight, the current travel waiver and compensation Delta is offering affected customers:

Q: What does Delta's travel waiver offer customers?

If a customer's flight is cancelled or significantly delayed, he or she entitled to a refund. Even if the flight is not canceled, a one-time change to the ticket may be made without a fee. See full details here.

Q. Has Delta's travel waiver been extended?

Yes, to offer additional flexibility to customers who wish to make changes to their travel plans, Delta's travel waiver has been extended. For the latest information, see full details here.

Q. Is Delta offering travel vouchers to impacted customers?

Yes. Delta will provide $200 in travel vouchers to all customers who experienced a delay of greater than three hours or a cancelled flight as a result of the impact to operations systemwide. The vouchers are available for travel on all Delta and Delta Connection-operated flights.

Customers affected by the outage and who have provided their email address will be contacted via email and will receive their voucher in seven to 10 business days. Customers who have not been contacted can complete a Customer Care form on www.delta.com/wecare to receive their voucher. All travel must be booked by one year from the date the voucher was issued.

Q. Do the travel vouchers also apply to customers who are entitled to a refund?

Yes. Delta will provide $200 in travel vouchers to all customers who experienced a delay of greater than three hours or a cancelled flight as a result of the impact to operations systemwide. ​
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August 9th, 2016 - Delta CEO Ed Bastian Releases Another Statement
Today Ed released another statement regarding the ongoing system reset and outage. Claiming "This isn't who we are". It can be found here.
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Nonrev Travel Discouraged; Buddy Passes embargoed
Delta employees and family with nonrev flight privileges are discouraged at this time from making any personal travel until further notice. Additionally, during this time travelling via the use of a buddy pass will be embargoed. An end date to this travel suspension has not been decided upon and will be released in future updates.
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Travel Waiver in effect:
All Delta flights
August 8-10, 2016
Ticket must be Reissued On or Before, and Rebooked Travel must begin no later than:
August 21, 2016

Note: This also has been extended to include hotel rooms and other accommodations for those customers who may need to take an add'l night stay due to a flight cancellation.
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August 9th, 2016 // 11:00 PM EST -
Delta canceled about 775 flights Tuesday as the airline worked to establish normal operations after Monday’s outage that disrupted the flight schedule. The outlook for Wednesday’s operation is positive, Delta officials said, with about 90 cancellations expected at the beginning of the day leading to normal operations later.

Delta continues to recover from events earlier this week and expect to be back to normal operations by mid-day Wed, with some cancellations in the morning. -summarized; news.delta.com
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August 9th, 2016 // 2:00 PM EST - Cause of Outage Identified:
"a critical power control module at our Technology Command Center malfunctioned, causing a surge to the transformer and a loss of power. The universal power was stabilized and power was restored quickly. But when this happened, critical systems and network equipment didn't switch over to backups. Other syste​ms did. And now we're seeing instability in these systems."

Power was restored quickly however, due to some critical systems and network equipment didn't switch over to the backups leading to the outage; DL still in recovery. ACS systems are still catching up and have been reported to be running slow -summarized; news.delta.com
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August 9th, 2016 // 12:30 PM EST - Delta has canceled about 530 flights today while more than 1,600 have departed as the airline works diligently to normalize operations after Monday's outage that disrupted the flight schedule. Leaders and employees continue to focus on promptly moving departures at the airline's Atlanta hub, the world's busiest.

Customers traveling today should check the status of their flight at delta.com or the Fly Delta App. Customers can rebook their flight via the website.

Delta's travel waiver has been extended to customers traveling on Aug. 9. Also, unaccompanied minors that have not yet begun travel will not be accepted until Wednesday. Those customers will be able to book without fee at a later date.

Delta offered compensation to customers significantly affected by delays or cancellations.​ -news.delta.com
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August 9th, 2016 // 8:30 AM EST - What Customers Need to Know for Tuesday:
​​​Delta is cancelling more than 300 flights Tuesday morning as it works to reset the operation and get crews, aircraft and other operational elements in place to take care of customers. The airline experienced a loss of power Monday morning that impacted operations systemwide.

​Here are some things to know today:

1. Customers traveling Tuesday should check the status of their flight at delta.com or the Fly Delta App. Customers can rebook their flight via the website.

2. Delays continue. Customers heading to the airport should expect delays and cancellations. While inquiries are high and wait times are long, our customer service agents are doing everything they can to assist.

3. Delta's travel waiver has been extended to customers traveling on Tuesday.

4. Delta extended its offer of compensation to customers significantly affected by delays or cancellations to cover today.​ ​

5​. Unaccompanied minors that have not yet begun travel will not be accepted until Wednesday. Those customers will be able to book without fee at a later date.-news.delta.com
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 5:51 am
  #76  
 
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On Friday I changed my outbound from today to Tuesday. If things are bad enough, I guess that might not be long enough.
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 5:51 am
  #77  
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Originally Posted by dzflyer
Today is putting the hurt on the cancellation and on time preformance. Delta the most on time airline if our computers work. No back up generator is the best punchline ever.
I doubt that is the case. It not turning on in time is more likely.
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 5:53 am
  #78  
 
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I can take this as a poster-kid for bad planning (and "news") to next customer already - where'll talk about backup power tests, DR offsite locations and so on.

Hilarious handling.

"Airlines in the cloud"? :-)
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 5:53 am
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Just announced in club. Msp-yyz now boarding.
Only flight at msp that is boarding.
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 5:55 am
  #80  
 
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Originally Posted by dzflyer
Today is putting the hurt on the cancellation and on time preformance. Delta the most on time airline if our computers work. No back up generator is the best punchline ever.
They almost certainly have two or more. I would bet some component in the failover process failed, and either the generators didn't fire up (whatever mechanism was supposed to turn them on did not) or they did fire up but the power couldn't get to the system.
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 5:55 am
  #81  
 
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Originally Posted by raehl311
For a system of that size, battery power is probably on the order of minutes. So if generators no-go....

More likely some of the power equipment like a panel or switch between the generators and the system failed.
I'm pretty sure that is "something bad... at their datacenter". Mainframes take a while to do a cold start/IPL...

My money want's to be on someone hitting the wrong button trying to leave the raised floor.

Originally Posted by nevansm
This I find very hard the believe, unless their multiple ISP's lost power too. There's battery backups for the first 10-12 min, generators to provide endless power, not to mention DR sites. Really don't get this issue. (FYI, IT architect here. If this was my people, heads would be rolling)
If the source of all truth in the universe is your mainframe, running ancient code, they may not have bothered with active/active DR sites, and it may in fact take 3 hours to either get a warm site up and running or get the mainframe in the main DC back up... That is my logic at least.


Edit: Turns out it was 5 hours...

Last edited by mother-; Aug 8, 2016 at 6:03 am
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 5:56 am
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Originally Posted by anon2k2
On Friday I changed my outbound from today to Tuesday. If things are bad enough, I guess that might not be long enough.
It might be perfect if you're willing to take a voucher.
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 5:56 am
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Pretty sure Deltamatic is still on IBM mainframes. They are extremely tolerant machines that do not break easily. It has to be either external systems (networks routers/switches ... or firewall changes) or once in a lifetime operator errors that breaks the actual mainframe.
Meanwhile, being on mainframe makes it much harder to go 'Cloudy'
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 5:57 am
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The captain of our 0525 CDT flight OMA-ATL just said that Delta's systems are back up and operational, but that landings at ATL are going to be "staggered". He guessed that we won't be leaving here for another 3 hours (approximately 10 am CDT).

They are getting ready to board the OMA-MSP flight right now.
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 5:57 am
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Originally Posted by raehl311
They almost certainly have two or more. I would bet some component in the failover process failed, and either the generators didn't fire up (whatever mechanism was supposed to turn them on did not) or they did fire up but the power couldn't get to the system.
Careful with words here.. earlier this year a technician (almost) went up in flames ("fired up") when he short-circuited somewhere between mains and backup power (brought down one of two IT-"lines", too - double backup for more winning).
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 5:58 am
  #86  
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Originally Posted by nevansm
(FYI, IT architect here. If this was my people, heads would be rolling)
What a lousy boss you would be, drawing conclusions without even knowing all the facts .
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 6:01 am
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Originally Posted by PAX_fips
Careful with words here.. earlier this year a technician (almost) went up in flames ("fired up") when he short-circuited somewhere between mains and backup power (brought down one of two IT-"lines", too - double backup for more winning).
I actually have a buddy who maintains backup power supply systems for a living. His stories of what they'll do for certain can't-go-down critical systems make me queasy just hearing about them.

They apparently work with live components on a not infrequent basis. Touch the wrong thing and yer dead.
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 6:03 am
  #88  
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Wouldn't be surprised if Bastian blames the ME3 and especially QR for the outage.
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 6:05 am
  #89  
 
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I did wake up to a major storm last night at about the time Delta seems to have "died" so that may have been the first "source" of the power outage. Does appear they have back up problems. (But I had a hospital have the same issue a few years ago in spite of "testing" so... it happens!)
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Old Aug 8, 2016, 6:05 am
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Originally Posted by RTW1
What a lousy boss you would be, drawing conclusions without even knowing all the facts .
Not to go down this route, but I'm in IT as well and I feel the exact same way as the poster that said, "heads would roll". A company like Delta employs quite a lot of people to ensure this exact thing doesn't happen. Millions of dollars in equipment is spent in batteries and generators (and we're not talking about a couple Car Batteries here or Food Truck generators). If they don't work then why was the money spent?

We call these sort of incidents, "resume generating events". Unless this is terrorism or a failure of sorts that will put the entire IT world in awe because of the fact that everything everyone knows about redundancy is wrong, many someones didn't do their job.
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