CHICAGO — A momentary failure inside Amazon Web Services’ US-EAST-1 region rippled through airline reservation systems early Monday, leaving Chicago-based United Airlines passengers unable to complete routine online tasks such as check-in, seat selection and prepaid bag drop for several hours.
What Went Wrong With Amazon’s Cloud
Amazon’s cloud division acknowledged “increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services in the US-EAST-1 Region,” according to a status bulletin the company posted before dawn Monday. A short time later, the same dashboard advised customers that “most requests should now be succeeding,” adding that engineers were still working through a backlog. The disruption was not limited to United. Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and other carriers that lean on AWS to host customer-facing tools also saw hiccups, though United’s branded website and mobile app appeared to suffer the most visible passenger impact.
United’s Digital Tools Go Dark
Travelers attempting to use the airline’s website or app during the outage encountered error messages instead of boarding passes, while some saw reservations disappear entirely. In a reply to a stranded customer on X, the airline wrote that it was “experiencing a system glitch affecting our online tools,” United said in a social post. Counter agents were able to print paper boarding passes, so the issue did not ground the fleet, but it did sow confusion at self-service kiosks and automated bag drops.
Flight Operations: Delays but No Meltdown
Data from FlightAware show United logged 659 delayed departures Monday, representing 22% of its schedule. The figure was actually lower than Sunday’s 678 delays, also 22% of operations, indicating that flight crews and dispatchers largely kept aircraft moving despite the digital snarl. Among major U.S. carriers, Southwest posted the most sluggish day with 1,300 delays, followed by Delta at 803, American at 769 and low-cost European giant easyJet at 683. In total, 6,516 flights into, within or out of the United States ran late on Monday, while cancellations remained comparatively modest at 83.
Amazon’s Path to Recovery
By late morning Eastern Time most AWS functions were back online. “We are seeing significant signs of recovery. Most requests should now be succeeding,” Amazon said in a prepared statement. Remaining queues of unprocessed requests cleared gradually, and United told customers that online functionality was fully restored by midday.
A Pattern of Tech Turbulence for United
Monday’s outage was the third technology-related blemish on United’s public dashboard in recent weeks. • On a September overnight, the carrier halted all departures from the United States and Canada for roughly 30 minutes after a connectivity failure inside its internal network. The self-imposed ground stop, filed with the Federal Aviation Administration between 1 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., was lifted at 1:30 a.m., yet Los Angeles International Airport still recorded 42 delayed movements. • More recently, Flight UA1093 from Denver to Los Angeles diverted when its windshield cracked after colliding with what was initially feared to be space debris—a theory later disproved when investigators identified the object as a weather balloon. • Flight UA1357 also declared a technology emergency last week, turning back to Washington while en route to Raleigh-Durham.
Delta, American and Others Also Felt the Pinch
Delta reported “minor” operational delays tied to the AWS glitch and said it did not “anticipate any significant customer impact moving forward as a result of this event,” Delta said in a prepared statement. American Airlines acknowledged system slowness but avoided public detail. The broader disruption underscores how intertwined commercial aviation has become with cloud-based infrastructure, especially in areas such as dynamic pricing, mobile boarding passes and RFID-tagged luggage tracking.
Tips for Travelers During a Cloud Outage
- Screenshot everything: Capture your boarding pass or confirmation number once it appears; local files remain accessible if the cloud goes offline.
- Arrive early for manual work-arounds: When self-service kiosks fail, lines at staffed counters grow quickly.
- Enable airline text alerts: SMS messages often bypass app failures and provide gate changes in real time.
- Know alternate booking channels: United’s reservations can still be modified by phone or through Star Alliance partners during internal outages.
- Carry a backup payment method: Mobile wallets linked to cloud services may stall; a physical credit card keeps ancillary purchases moving.
FAQ: United Airlines & AWS Outage
How long did the United website stay down?
United’s customer-facing tools were disrupted for several early-morning hours Monday. Full functionality resumed by midday.
Were flights canceled?
No mass cancellations occurred. United experienced 659 delays (22% of its schedule) but ran the day without a severe networkwide shutdown.
Is this the first time AWS has hurt airline operations?
No. Previous outages—in 2020 and 2021—affected both ticket sales and airport displays across multiple carriers.
Can travelers claim compensation for tech-related delays?
U.S. regulations do not mandate automatic cash compensation for delays caused by airline computer issues, though you may receive miles, vouchers or meal tickets at the carrier’s discretion.
What if I was charged twice during the glitch?
Monitor your credit-card statement and contact United’s customer-care desk with screenshots of duplicate charges; the airline typically reverses errors within one billing cycle.
Looking Ahead: Building Resilience Into Travel Tech
Monday’s incident spotlights the aviation sector’s reliance on a handful of third-party cloud providers, raising questions about redundancy. Analysts expect carriers to broaden multi-cloud strategies, mirroring investments in spare aircraft and reserve crews. For travelers, the episode is a reminder to maintain old-school backups—printed itineraries, physical credit cards and the situational awareness that a boarding pass can still be issued at the gate. — as Amazon Web Services said in a prepared statement.
