How to Stay Agile When Flights Are Canceled: Insights from NBC New York

American Airlines has announced a travel advisory on Tuesday to provide passengers with flexibility due to a technical dilemma that occurred on Christmas Eve.

The airline indicated that a “vendor technology issue” resulted in a temporary halt of flights on Tuesday morning amidst the busy holiday travel period.

“We have fixed a vendor technology issue that briefly disrupted flights this morning. We profoundly apologize to our clients for the disruption and have issued a travel advisory to permit additional flexibility,” American stated in a social media update.

The airline is waiving modification fees for travelers booked in any fare category, including Basic Economy, who purchased their tickets by Dec. 23 for travel on Dec. 24, provided they:

• Make changes on Dec. 24 for travel between Dec. 24 and Dec. 26
• Do not alter origin or destination cities
• Do not cancel the journey and request reimbursement
• Are flying on an American Airlines flight

The affected cities that qualify for travel flexibility include travel to, through, or from:

• Austin, Texas (AUS)
• Boston, Massachusetts (BOS)
• Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT)
• Chicago, Illinois (ORD)
• Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas (DFW)
• Los Angeles, California (LAX)
• Miami, Florida (MIA)
• New York Kennedy, New York (JFK)
• New York LaGuardia, New York (LGA)
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PHL)
• Phoenix, Arizona (PHX)
• Washington Reagan, Washington D.C. (DCA)

American Airlines stated it will grant a one-time modification allowance for qualifying flights.

American flights were cleared for departure by federal authorities approximately one hour after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop order.

There were 1,447 delays for flights entering or leaving the U.S. earlier in the day, along with 28 cancellations. Snow was falling in the early hours in New York while Dallas-Fort Worth International, American Airlines’ primary hub, was experiencing rain.

Dallas-Fort Worth reported the highest number of delays, followed by Charlotte, North Carolina, Washington, New York, Chicago, and Miami.

This marks the first holiday season since a Transportation Department regulation took effect, mandating airlines to provide customers an automatic cash refund for a canceled or significantly delayed flight. Although many air travelers has already been entitled to refunds, often they were required to request them.

Passengers still have the option to request rebooking, which can frequently be a more advantageous choice than a refund during busy travel times. This is due to the high costs associated with finding last-minute flights on alternate airlines.

Just before 7 a.m. Eastern time, the Federal Aviation Administration mandated all American Airlines flights to be grounded in the U.S. at the airline’s request. American indicated that it faced a technical issue impacting its entire system during a peak travel time for the holidays.

The airline communicated via email that the technical difficulty experienced Tuesday morning resulted from a vendor technology issue that “affected systems necessary to release flights.”

The groundings could not have occurred at a more inconvenient time for the millions of individuals expected to travel over the next 10 days. The Transportation Security Administration anticipates screening 40 million travelers during the holiday season and until January 2.

Airlines forecast their busiest days to be Friday and Sunday, along with Dec. 26, Dec. 27, and Dec. 29.

Many holiday flights are sold out, which amplifies the disruption caused by cancellations compared to slower periods. Even a brief outage can lead to a domino effect of cancellations that may require days to rectify.

“Airline travel is extremely high at the moment, but the majority of individuals drive to their destinations, and this holds true for every holiday,” stated AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz.