Been a fun year, doing all the tracking on our phones in wave 1 (and now wave 2)
But finding my phones plane UPS 91 and tracking to Louisville Ky as it tracked by my home in east central Illinois:
I'm in Cincinnati area. Maybe 10 years ago there were storms across the upper midwest that forced the flight from Anchorage to Louisville to go east of Detroit and it came right over my house. It was crazy as I watched it on the tracker and heard it fly over at 30 some thousand feet overhead at 3am- it is quiet enough at that time of night that I can hear the high flying jets. I had to wait another 12 hours for delivery.
My ritual now is to pick it up at the CCC just after they open on launch day. I usually include a trip to the Apple Store just for fun to see what's happening there before I head home to set up the new phone.
I loved flying on 747s when United was using them and had maybe 40 transoceanic flights (mostly to Australia, one to Hong Kong, and a few from SFO and ORD to FRA). So the 747 is my preferred plane to bring my phone to the USA. I think it's funny that I care.
In October of 2018 I flew to and from Hong Kong, just days after my iPhone arrived from China. On the way home I took photos of Hong Kong and Anchorage with the phone I'd just tracked flying over those same places. Very cool.
My phone has now left CGO, I imagine it's going through Korea, but occasionally they've gone through Hong Kong.
PS I'm pretty sure Post #1 in this thread says to track shipping via UPS. Apple doesn't report "shipped" until the phone is leaving Louisville for the final leg. So don't pay any attention to Apple saying it's still preparing to ship on Thursday. If you have a Friday delivery scheduled it is either on the way to Louisville or already there.