I started writing this from an Economy Plus seat on a United Airlines plane sitting on the tarmac at Houston Bush Intercontinental (IAH), 40 minutes after we landed on time with nowhere to go. (Economy Plus because this was a last-minute booking: business was sold out and the upgrade waitlist was deep, so even Premier Gold status was not going to get me past the curtain.) I am finishing it one hour and 54 minutes later, from the gate we finally got. The crew opened the lavatories and let people move around the cabin the whole time, the captain kept apologizing, and I got through an episode and a half of season 2 of Black Doves, which I recommend if you find yourself in the same seat tonight. What nobody on board had was a gate, because every gate at United’s second-largest hub had an airplane parked at it that the FAA would not let leave.
At about 4 p.m. Eastern on Friday, November 13, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered every departing flight in the United States to stay on the ground. Flights already in the air, like mine, were allowed to continue and land. The problem is where. Hubs filled up with planes that could not push back, and arriving aircraft stacked up behind them on taxiways. That is the row of tails I was looking at out the window.
I am not going to make my connection. Nobody on this plane is. The United app has already offered me a seat on tomorrow morning’s flight, and I am going to take it. Here is what we know so far, what United is actually offering, and what to do if you are sitting on a tarmac somewhere tonight reading this on a phone with 14 percent battery.
What happened
The FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center issued the order at 2:54 p.m. Central (3:54 p.m. Eastern), stating that “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” all airports were ground stopped, with departing traffic to remain on the ground until further notice and inbound international flights handled case by case (News 9, LiveNOW from FOX). A ground stop means an aircraft cannot leave its departure point; it does not pull planes out of the sky.
The cause, as the government describes it, is a telecommunications failure between air traffic control facilities. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the stop followed “a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers” (CBS News). Those are the en route centers that handle aircraft between airports, not the towers you see at the field. An internal Alaska Airlines message seen by CNBC described the problems as affecting both communications and radar (CNBC).
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters there was no indication so far that anything nefarious was behind it, and officials from several agencies told NBC News the early investigation showed no sign of malicious activity (NBC News). Mullin also said the stop is unrelated to Thursday’s large Microsoft outage (CNN). The FAA has not said where the failure started or how it spread (Washington Times).
Where it stands tonight
As of this writing there is no timeline. Shortly after 6 p.m. Eastern the FAA said the stop remained in effect but that flights would be allowed to depart as en route facilities recover, coordinated through the command center (ABC7). Mullin said separately there was no timeline for restarting flights. An airline source told CNN that major carriers could shut down operations for the rest of the night (CNN).
The numbers, which were still climbing:
| Measure | Figure | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flights delayed | 10,494 | 6:04 p.m. ET | FlightAware via ABC7 |
| Flights canceled | 1,913 | 6:04 p.m. ET | Same |
| Flights diverted | ~600, of which 496 returned to origin | 5:50 p.m. ET | Cirium via Federal News Network |
| Flights scheduled to depart after 4 p.m. ET | ~11,000, carrying 1.5 million people | Friday | Same |
A few exceptions were carved out. Flights within Alaska and Hawaii were allowed to operate, as were some transatlantic departures out of Boston and some United international departures handled case by case (ABC7, Houston Chronicle). Chicago O’Hare went more than two hours without a single departure (CNN).
Which brings me back to my gate problem at IAH, where the Houston Chronicle reported delays growing at both Bush and Hobby through the evening. United said flights already airborne would continue but that diversions were happening because of the number of aircraft on the ground at its hubs, and that cancellations were being implemented due to congestion (LiveNOW from FOX). That is a polite way of saying the parking lot is full.
What United is offering
United posted a travel waiver within about two hours of the stop. The terms, as United’s alert and local reporting describe them (KIRO 7, ABC7 Chicago, StockTitan):
| Waiver term | What United says |
|---|---|
| Who qualifies | Tickets bought on or before November 12 for travel on November 13 or 14 |
| What is waived | Change fee and fare difference |
| Rebooking window | New United flight departing November 12 through November 20, 2026 |
| Conditions | Same cabin, same origin and destination as originally booked |
| Outside the window or a different city | Change fee still waived; a fare difference may apply |
| Deadline | Change or cancel before your original flight departs |
| Booked through a third party | Contact the agency or other airline directly |
| Where to do it | united.com or the United app |
Two practical notes from my seat. First, the app is faster than the gate agent tonight, and the agent will tell you the same thing. Second, the “before your original flight departs” clause matters: if your flight is delayed rather than canceled, move yourself before United moves you, so you get the morning seat you want instead of the one that is left.
United also pushed a $20 electronic travel certificate to my account while we were still sitting on the tarmac. I am a Premier Gold, and I do not know whether that went to everyone on the flight or only to elites; United’s statements tonight do not mention it. If you were on a delayed United flight today, open the app and look under your wallet before you assume you got nothing. Twenty dollars does not buy much at an airport, but it is a signal that United is coding this as a disruption worth compensating, which matters if you end up arguing about a hotel later.
Delta posted a similar waiver covering November 13 and 14. American and Southwest had not posted alerts as of early evening (StockTitan, The Travel).
If you are stuck tonight
- Rebook in the app before you do anything else. Morning seats are the scarce resource. Every minute you spend in a customer-service line is a minute someone else spends taking the 6 a.m.
- Know the difference between a delay and a cancellation. If United cancels your flight and you choose not to travel, you are entitled to a refund to your original form of payment regardless of the reason, and the same applies to a significant delay or schedule change you decline (KIRO 7). A voucher is not a refund; you can decline it.
- Do not expect a hotel voucher, but ask. An FAA outage is not the airline’s fault, and airlines generally treat air traffic control disruptions as outside their control, which means the hotel and meal commitments they have made for controllable delays may not apply. Agents still have discretion. Ask politely, once.
- If you are on the aircraft, the tarmac clock is running. Federal rules require airlines to give passengers on a domestic flight a chance to get off after three hours on the tarmac, with exceptions for safety and security. We came off at one hour and 54 minutes, about an hour short of the limit, and the crew’s decision to open the lavatories and let people stand is exactly what the rule expects of them while the clock runs. If you are two hours in, the captain knows it too.
- Pull up your credit card’s trip-delay benefit now, not tomorrow. Premium travel cards, including the Chase Sapphire Reserve we use for airfare, reimburse reasonable hotel, meal and transportation costs when a covered trip is delayed past a threshold, commonly six hours or an overnight stay. The coverage requires that the flight be paid for with the card and that you keep receipts. Read your card’s guide to benefits for the exact trigger and the per-ticket cap before you book the hotel.
- Use points for the airport hotel, and book before the plane empties. Airport hotels near major hubs will sell out tonight. A free-night certificate or a points redemption is the best use of either on a night like this, because the cash rate will be at its peak and the certificate would otherwise expire unused.
- Screenshot everything. The delay notice, the cancellation notice, the rebooking confirmation, the hotel folio. Trip-delay claims and refund disputes are won on documentation.
My plan: morning flight in the app (done), airport hotel on a free-night certificate, Sapphire Reserve trip-delay claim for dinner and the shuttle. The one thing I could not do anything about was the gate, and that took just under two hours to sort itself out.
The bigger picture
Nationwide ground stops almost never happen. This is the first since January 2023, when a corrupted file in the FAA’s NOTAM pilot-alert system halted morning departures, and only the second since the September 11 attacks (Federal News Network, CNBC). The 2023 event lasted a few hours and still produced more than 1,300 cancellations and 10,000 delays (CBS News). Friday’s stop landed at 4 p.m. on the busiest afternoon of the week, two weeks before Thanksgiving, and passed the 2023 delay count within about two hours.
The timing has also put a spotlight on the FAA’s new technology. The stop came the same week the agency expanded SMART, an AI-assisted air traffic tool built by vendor Air Space Intelligence (Scientific American). The company said its software did not cause the outage, and Mullin said officials were looking at the system as part of the review (NBC News, StockTitan). Nobody has established a link, and the official explanation remains a telecommunications failure. A former United pilot interviewed in Houston put it plainly: when controllers lose the ability to talk to aircraft, whether because of aging wiring or anything else, the only safe move is to keep planes on the ground (Houston Chronicle).
For travelers, the lesson is the one we keep relearning: the system has very little slack. One telecom failure at the en route centers emptied the departure boards in every U.S. time zone within an hour, and the recovery will take longer than the outage, because every aircraft and crew is now in the wrong city. Saturday will be rough even if the stop lifts tonight. If you are flying this weekend, check your flight before you leave for the airport, and if you have any flexibility, use it.
We will update this post as the FAA lifts the stop and as more airlines post waivers. If you are stuck somewhere tonight, tell us where in the comments; we are keeping a running list of which airports are moving.
Related on Points Capital: United Opens Dulles Concourse E With Its Second-Largest United Club · How We Get 3 Free Marriott Nights Every Year With 3 Marriott Cards
Sources
All reporting pulled the evening of November 13, 2026, while the ground stop was still in effect. Figures are as of the times stated and will have changed.
- CNBC: FAA grounds departing flights nationwide
- CBS News: FAA issues nationwide ground stop
- NBC News live blog
- CNN live updates
- ABC7 live updates
- Washington Post
- Washington Times
- Federal News Network (AP)
- Scientific American
- TechCrunch
- News 9 Oklahoma: ATCSCC advisory text
- Houston Chronicle: IAH and United statement
- Click2Houston: United travel waiver
- KIRO 7: passenger options and United waiver terms
- StockTitan: waiver summary
- CBS News: January 2023 outage
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