Technologies

Alaska Airlines Flights Resume After IT Outage. What to Do if You Were Affected

The outage affected Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air flights for several hours on Sunday.

Alaska Airlines paused its operations for several hours late on July 20 due to what the company called, «a significant IT outage» that affected its operations.

About three hours later, flights resumed and the company posted on X: «Alaska Airlines has resolved its earlier IT outage and has resumed operations. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and encourage guests to check your flight status before heading to the airport.»

The delays affected Alaska Air and Horizon Air flights at airports including Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where about 49 flights were canceled and 43 were delayed as of the moving of July 21, according to a local report.

In an email to CNET, Alaska Air gave more details about what caused the outage on Sunday. «A critical piece of multi-redundant hardware at our data centers, manufactured by a third-party, experienced an unexpected failure,» the company said in an email.

«When that happened, it impacted several of our key systems that enable us to run various operations, necessitating the implementation of a ground stop to keep aircraft in position. The safety of our flights was never compromised,» Alaska Air said. «We are currently working with our vendor to replace the hardware equipment at the data center.»

The company added the outages were not related to a cybersecurity incident that affected Hawaiian Airlines in June.

In total, more than 150 flights were canceled, including 64 cancelations on Monday. «Additional flight disruptions are likely as we reposition aircraft and crews throughout our network,» the company said.

What customers can do

If you were or continue to be impacted by the disruption, you’re probably wondering what to do next.

«We appreciate the patience of our guests whose travel plans have been disrupted,» said the airline. «We’re working to get them to their destinations as quickly as we can. Before heading to the airport, we encourage flyers to check their flight status.»

Last year, rules changed on what customers are entitled to when flights are canceled or delayed. Although airlines have tried to roll back those rules under a new presidential administration, they’re still in place.

Those changes to compensation called for automatic, prompt refunds for canceled or significantly delayed flights without requiring customers to jump through excessive hoops to get compensation. The determination for a refund often depends on whether a cancelation resulted in a wait time of three or more hours.

According to the Department of Transportation’s Airline Cancelation Delay Dashboard, Alaska Airlines has some of the more flexible customer policies regarding delays and cancelations,

Alaska’s customer service line is at 1-800-252-7522. They also offer a Help Center web page that includes an AI-powered chatbot called Ask Alaska.

Technologies

Tubi App Goes Live in ChatGPT to Give You TV and Movie Recommendations

Like the ultra-customized feel of a Tubi rec? The streamer aims to make it even more personalized.

Tubi, the free streaming platform known for its vast library of cult classics and indie movies, has added an app to ChatGPT. You can now use the chatbot to find content recommendations for TV shows and movies on Tubi, the streamer announced on Tuesday.

You may already have your own search strategy when using Tubi, but the addition of the native app within ChatGPT allows you to strike up a conversation and ask for uber-specific, personalized title suggestions. If you see a film or show that captures your interest, you have the option to click «Watch on Tubi» to stream it on a mobile device or the web. In the mood for scary movies about yetis? Use @Tubi for your prompt in the chatbot and request something like, «horror movies with aggressive yetis» and expect to see a selection of titles that fit your wish list.

«Streaming should feel effortless, and as chatbots and AI agents are becoming a common way people navigate the internet, Tubi is expanding its discovery experience to meet viewers in the moment they’re expressing intent in their own words,» Mike Bidgoli, Tubi’s chief of product and technology, said in a statement.

ChatGPT opened its app store this past December. It currently includes apps for Apple Music, Zillow, Spotify and Canva, offering the ability to connect your accounts to search, design or ask for recommendations. Back in 2023, Tubi created its own AI-powered tool called Rabbit AI for mobile users to help audiences find content to watch. The company later shuttered the feature, which used Open AI’s Chat GPT-4. With today’s launch, it’s the first video streaming service to add an app within ChatGPT.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Technologies

PlayStation Plus Subscribers Can Play Tomb Raider and More All April Long

Subscribers can also explore a Soulslike game that just got a big update.

PlayStation Plus, which is Sony’s version of Xbox Game Pass, offers a large, constantly expanding library of games. Subscribers can choose from the Essential, Extra and Premium tiers, each with unique perks and benefits. Starting at $10 a month, the plans give subscribers access to games and rewards, and each month, all subscribers can play a handful of new games at no additional charge. And some people on Reddit are pretty excited for a few of the games Sony is offering subscribers throughout April.

One user wrote how they are «buzzing» for the remastered Tom Raider games, while another user is willing to replay the Soulslike game Lords of the Fallen. «April fools’ joke? Because they’re actually good,» a third user wrote.

If you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, you can play these games now until May 4.

Lords of the Fallen

If you played Elden Ring and thought, «I wish this game had even more grimdark elements to it, like Bloodborne,» Lords of the Fallen might be for you. Choose one of nine classes to play as while you traverse the lands of the living and the dead in order to overthrow the demon god Adyr. You’ll fight all manner of monstrosities along the way, like a colossal humanoid with an arm protruding from its mouth or a giant carrion crow that wears a human skull.

HexWorks, the gaming studio behind Lords of the Fallen, also released a patch for the game on April 3. The patch is intended to make co-op sessions feel more rewarding for hosts and guests, so you and your friends should have even more fun in this game.

Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered

Experience these classic Tomb Raider games from the 90s all over again — or for the first time — with the remastered trilogy. You’ll explore jungles, solve puzzles in the desert and tackle mercenaries and monsters along the way. While you can enjoy the boosted graphics of the remastered edition, you can also enable low-poly mode to experience these games as you would have almost 30 years ago.

Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream

A system called Galaxia has been added to Alfheim Online, allowing players to relive the past. But the system has spun out of control, displacing players throughout time. To set things right, you’ll have to work with friends and foes alike in this co-op raid battle game. But if you want to go solo, you can play story mode as characters from across space and time confront the anomaly in the VR world.

For more on PlayStation Plus, here’s what to know about the service. You can also check out other games on PlayStation Plus and games on Xbox Game Pass.

Technologies

Get Organized for Just $28 With This 6-in-1 Baseus Charging Station Deal

Ditch the cluttered cables and upgrade to this sleek USB power strip while it’s on sale for a record-low price.

For just $28, this six-in-one Baseus charging station can help you keep your desk organized. That’s 20% off and the all-time lowest price we’ve seen for this 120-watt USB power strip. We don’t expect this limited-time deal to last for long, however, so you’ll want to get your order in sooner rather than later.

You can use this charging station for just about all of your devices, including phones, tablets, headphones and laptops. It’s equipped with four USB-C ports and two USB-A ports, so you can charge up to six devices at once. It also boasts a 65-watt single-port output, enough to fully recharge a MacBook Air in less than 2 hours. And at just 323 grams, it’s light enough to take on the go, making it a great buy for frequent travelers.

Why this deal matters

This sleek Baseus charging station can connect to up to six devices at once, and is still small enough that you can take it on the go. Plus, this is the all-time lowest price we’ve seen, making it a pretty great value.