American Airlines Reservation System Restored, Flights Still Delayed

American Airlines flights across the country have been grounded because of computer problems.

At 3:30 p.m., the company said its reservation system has been restored, but they still expect continued cancellations and delays.

The company has promised refunds or travel updates to its customers. They posted this message on Facebook:

Our systems have been fully restored, however we expect continued flight delays and cancellations throughout the remainder of the day. We have made several options available to our customers:

If customers must travel today and are already at the airport, they can rebook on another airline by visiting an American Airlines agent or by going to the other airline's ticket counter with their electronic ticket number.

If customers must travel today and are not yet at the airport, they can rebook through American Airlines reservations or through another carrier and American will honor the fare difference.

If a customer chooses not to travel today, there will be no charge for reservation changes or a full refund will be provided.

It is important to note we see no evidence that today's technical outage is related to the tragic events in Boston.

We will continue to provide more information throughout the day as we make progress in resolving this issue. We apologize to our customers and our people for this inconvenience.

American had asked the Federal Aviation Administration to halt its flights until 4 p.m. Central Time. Flights on regional affiliate American Eagle heading to Dallas, Chicago or New York's LaGuardia Airport have been stopped until 2:30 p.m. Central Time.

KTVT, the CBS affiliate in Dallas/Ft. Worth, reports that a firewall issue interfered with the airline's ability to receive flight plans and performance data. They also could not account for who was boarding each plane.

Some passengers are stuck on planes while others can't make reservations. Passengers are using social media to flood the airline with complaints.

American Airlines spokesman Kent Powell said Tuesday that the airline is trying to resolve the issues as quickly as it can.

On Twitter, American is sending out apologies but not offering customers much information.

American Airlines tweeted:

Our reservation & booking tool Sabre is offline. We're working to resolve as quickly as we can. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Clarification: The issue is w/ our ability to access our res system & not w/ Sabre. We apologize to Sabre & customers for confusion.

UPDATE: We are now in a system-wide ground delay until 4:00pm CT as we work to resolve this issue. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Spokesperson for Tulsa International Airport Alexis Higgins said the computer outage has impacted all inbound and outbound American flights locally.

American Airlines website

Will Rogers World Airport website