An unexplained computer glitch that forced United Airlines to cancel 31 flights and delay 105 more Friday night left thousands of passengers still stranded in airports Saturday.
Flights resumed early Saturday, but the airline said it could take several days to get stranded travelers home. It is allowing them to change or delay trips without charge.
At Detroit Metro Airport, most of United's 24 daily flights were on time, and there were no major delays on others.
The outage started around 7:15 p.m. CDT Friday and lasted for about five hours. As a result, long lines of passengers formed at airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago. Some passengers ended up spending the night at airports or found hotel rooms in the cities where they were stranded.
United said its flight departures, airport processing and reservation system, including its website, were affected by the outage.
United didn't say how many passengers or flights were affected. But Los Angeles International Airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles said the outage affected about 2,500 people at that airport alone.
Nina and Mark Whitford of Brockville, Ontario, ended up in Chicago while on a layover on their flight home from Minneapolis. They said they were headed to a hotel to spend the night and were dismayed when an airline worker told them they would have to mail in their hotel receipt to get reimbursed.
"We've been waiting here for about two hours for our baggage, and nothing's come," said Nina Whitford, 35.
She said several people were still at the airport around 1 a.m. CDT Saturday, and others on their flight had rented cars to complete their trip to Canada.
"Some people were sleeping and some people were getting very angry because no one was giving us any answers," she said.
Ron Schaffer, an Apple Inc. engineer, was trying to connect with a flight to Grand Junction, Colo., after flying into Denver from Orlando, Fla.
"A hundred yards of kiosks, and every one of them closed," he said, adding there were no flights listed on monitors. "Workers were trying to answer questions. They have no ability to do anything manually. They can't check baggage. You can't get baggage. You are really stuck."
At the San Francisco International Airport, hundreds of passengers stood shoulder-to-shoulder.
Still, some people took the delays in stride.
Steve Cole, 51, of Bloxwich, England, was at the San Francisco airport waiting for a flight to Las Vegas.
"These are the things you have to expect when you're on holiday." Cole said. "I'm missing a night of gambling," he added with a grin.
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