Glitch Causes Alaska Air Flight Delays

A ticketing computer glitch at Alaska Airlines today caused lengthy delays and some flight cancellations in and out of Los Angeles International airport.

A statement on the airline's Facebook page blamed the outage on Sprint, which provides Internet service for Alaska Airlines. A severed fiber cable in the Midwest caused the airline's ticketing agents to lose connectivity to its reservations and check-in system, according to the statement.

Sprint Nextel spokeswoman Crystal Davis confirmed that a large fiber optic cable that runs along a railroad corridor between Chicago and Milwaukee was severed, but the exact cause of the cut was not yet known.

Data service was being rerouted, but a second fiber that runs between Tacoma, Wash. and Portland, Ore. was severed before the first one could be repaired.

The Sprint connection was restored early this afternoon, but the airline was still working this afternoon to get planes and passengers to their destinations .

LAX officials urged passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.

Alaska Airlines was waiving ticket change fees and refunding some tickets.

"If you were inconvenienced today, we are committed to making it up to you," the airline said on its Facebook page. "Please work with our airport staff or reservations agents to get re-accommodated on the next available flight. After that, our Customer Care department wants to hear from anyone who experienced significant delays today and we will reach out to them to discuss any type of compensation."

Travelers were urged to call the airline's customer care number at 1-800-654-5669 or send an email via the website at www.alaskaair.com/.