Local travel professionals and businesses moved quickly into action to provide support to the many Australians whose travel plans were thrown into chaos on Friday and into the weekend.

The chaos was the result of the flow-on effect of the suspension of check-in services and flights domestically and globally.

A blue screen with the outage alert was all that appeared on computer screens at airports, banks, media and supermarkets, that were among the major Australian businesses thrown into chaos when Microsoft systems were hit by the global IT outage cause by an update by Crowdstrike, an American cybersecurity technology company based.

“I’ve had people who weren’t clients contact me in a panic as a result of the outage, as Jetstar had cancelled their flight from Singapore to Melbourne and rebooked them in six days’ time,” said Olive Tree director Steven Green.

“There was no accommodation with a credit on offer for the flight. They called to see if we could help get them home earlier. We could.”

“I booked them on two seats on Qantas for Monday evening and was checking hourly over the weekend to see if there were any other options that had opened up for them to get them home earlier. They were happy to pay my booking fee and told me they felt blessed to have a guardian angel on their side, trying all the options for them.”

Take Off Go director Ivona Siniarska said she had two clients, a mother and son, travelling through the US for a family reunion, who were scheduled to fly from Denver to Chicago to Green Bay.

“Their flight was supposed to depart at 10 am, but American Airlines hadn’t cancelled the flights in our GDS, so we were uncertain whether the guests should go to the airport,” she said.

“They couldn’t miss the family reunion, so we had to act quickly. As the check-in deadline approached and the airline still showed the flights as cancelled on their website, we decided to skip the chaos and quickly hired a car, so they could drive the 17 hours to make the reunion on time.

“We also booked them a hotel in Des Moines for their overnight stay. I received a heartfelt message saying they made it to the family reunion on time. They expressed their gratitude for how, within 15 minutes, I was able to cancel their flights, email American Airlines, and book them a car and hotel to ensure they made it to their family gathering.”

ATIA CEO Dean Long said Friday’s Microsoft outages, which led to flight cancellations and check-in delays on a global and domestic scale, underscored the invaluable support that ATAS-accredited members provide.

“Travel professionals are worth their weight in gold, particularly during unexpected disruptions,” he said.

“Australia’s travel professionals went above and beyond over the weekend to help their clients and non-clients who reached out in desperation. Choosing an ATAS-accredited travel professional means choosing peace of mind and reliable assistance, no matter the circumstances.”

Southern Cross Travel Insurance says it WILL be covering claims following Crowdstrike outage