So most airlines have their own mobile app nowadays and this is great for tracking your own flights, checking-in, and perhaps even making seat changes or booking travel. Some apps even show connecting gate information and airport maps to help you navigate airports where you are connecting.
While many of these apps are great, we have found that it can be useful to have other tools to supplement these and keep you better informed about what your options are and how to make the best choices, especially when it comes to delays and rerouting.
We’ve been using an app called FlightAware, which can look up your flight by flight number and give you more information than many of the standard airline apps.
Some cool features:
- A ‘where is my plane now’ button which shows you if the incoming flight has departed or is also delayed or cancelled. We’ve often gotten a heads-up of difficulties before the ‘on time’ status of our own flight was updated.
- Airport conditions lookup gives you current status including any delays and gate holds about airports. Use this both for your departure and arrival airports, and also the airport where your incoming flight is departing from. The app also gives you trending as to whether delays are increasing or decreasing.
- Historical information about flights, like how often they are on time, how often they have been delayed or early (intercontinental flights may get tailwinds or headwinds that may alter schedules by as much as an hour or more). Very handy when you are calculating connection times.
Other things to look for include:
Airport maps to give you ideas on commute time between terminals (you can google individual airports). Short connections are great if you know your way around the airport. Take into consideration checked bags, immigration and customs, and security.
Having TSA Pre and Global Entry/Nexus and other tools will all increase you chances of making short connections even on international flights. But don’t expect that TSA Pre will be offered abroad and be ready to pull out liquids and laptops, and take shoes off even if you’re used to skipping those procedures at home.
Weather apps including radar apps (like myradar) are also handy, and if your flights have been cancelled or are likely to be cancelled due to a storm, you want to make sure the flight you select has a better chance of departing.
For example, a flight the morning after a storm in airports that are non-hubs for your airline are unlikely to depart, as the incoming flights would also have been cancelled. In this case you are better on an afternoon flight or a next day flight. If you gamble wrong, those flights will get full too and you may be stuck for days instead of an extra morning or night.
Conclusion
Sometimes ignorance is bliss, but when trouble occurs being prepared helps you make better choices. We have often had to change flights and connections and it’s certainly easier to do it earlier than later as more and more delayed or stranded people do the same.
Having information about your options also helps, it’s better to be informed and know alternate flights and numbers when you call so you can request a particular flight number instead of simply saying: “What do I do now?”