Anniversary Celebration Leads to Computer Meltdown at go!

Planning to celebrate the first anniversary of its inter-island service, go! offered 1,000 seats at $1 one-way, only to frustrate travelers as its reservations system shut down for eight hours within minutes of the sale offering began. The Honolulu Star Bulletin reported Sabre, which runs its booking engine, did not have enough capacity to handle the more than 20,000 hits to go!'s web site to the point where go! extended the sale for an additional five hours beyond the 12-hour deadline and added an additional 1,000 seats to the sale capacity. Its phone and email accounts were similarly flooded. Aloha and Hawaiian, who have added a ton of capacity in the market since go!’s debut, did not match the sale. Sabre’s GetThere brand added capacity to solve the problem. Customers could get to the carrier’s web site but received an error message when they tried to book a flight.