"Leap Day" causes problems for United check-in kiosks

And here I thought date/time calculations were pretty much a solved problem in the computer programming world. Apparently that's not the case.... at least, not if you have crappy programmers. This according to Chicago Business News, via the AP:

Passengers using United Airlines' "Easy Check-In" found it anything but that on Leap Day when the automated system failed, resulting in longer lines at its U.S. airport counters.

The Chicago-based carrier blamed the service interruption on software issues related to the leap year.

Spokeswoman Megan McCarthy says customers couldn't get Easy Check-In kiosks to confirm they had been checked in or print out their boarding passes for several hours.

McCarthy says no flights were delayed because of the problem. The airline apologized to customers for any inconvenience.

I'm sure that apology made the thousands of passengers waiting in line (after having been spoiled by the always prompt and courteous service of self check-in devices these past few years) feel much better. Makes you wonder how we did without the things just a few years ago :)

Tags: kiosks, self-service, check-in kiosks