Using the airline's apps has the same issue. If they show the flight as delayed, you are still supposed to show up at the airport for the original flight time.
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Flighty Now Able to Provide Early Warnings About Flight Delays
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Flightly is a great app that's very much let down by its data providers. When I used it last year in the US it was fantastic. Using it normally here in Europe though the data is more often than not incorrect or significantly delayed. Accurate data is always available from the usual suspects (FlightRadar, FlightAware, etc.) too so I can't understand why it's so bad.
I use it differently. I would still get to the airport on time and use the excess time to catch up on work in a lounge.
The airlines can shift things around very quickly and they won’t ask our permission. We’ve all had flights that get delayed severely then they find a way to reduce that delay quickly. Which is greatly appreciate on a connecting flight where you start to worry about downstream impact to your trip.
The answer lies in the various agreements and contractual restrictions on the flight tracking data from different sources.
In the United States the core flight tracking data is funded via taxpayer dollars going to the FAA. This data is made available to "industry" (the usual suspects) effectively free of charge under the narrative that it has already been paid for by the taxpayers and is already "their data." This means that flight data providers are free to publish live and historical flight tracking data from the FAA to the general public without restriction.
In Europe that data is funded differently and flight data providers are prohibited from making that data available to the general public. A user must demonstrate that they are involved operationally in a specific flight in order for a company to provide that flight's tracking data to the public. This makes it much more of a challenge to provide accurate flight tracking to the general public.
The rollout of ADS-B flight tracking data which is crowdsourced or privately acquired does bypass these restrictions in Europe since that data is not subject to the Eurocontrol access rules. However, it is simply raw position data and does not include flight plans or schedules which are very meaningful when providing effective predictive forecasts for flights or overall aviation traffic.
Truly global flight tracking (including all trans-oceanic) comes primarily from satellite-based ASDB receivers in low orbit. Access to this data is controlled by the companies who launched and maintain those satellites and each commercial data provider (FlightAware, FlightRadar24, et al) has to strike its own agreements with those satellite providers which dictate how it can be published or distributed if they want to incorporate that data into their products.
As with many things, it's more of a political and commercial challenge than it is a technical one.
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what does your setup look like for keeping TripIt and Flighty in sync? Do you first add to TripIt, then flighty pulls or…?
I don't think those two apps sync with each other? It would be a great collaboration though if they did
The issue with this, is it rarely ever saves you time at the airport. Airlines still want you to be on time, if your flight is delayed. They stop receiving checked bags and they could choose to leave at anytime, they don't have to stick to the new times if something changes that allows them to leave earlier.
Unless your flight is canceled, you should plan to be there at the original time or risk not flying.
Unless your flight is canceled, you should plan to be there at the original time or risk not flying.
Anything that keeps me from going to the airport earlier than I need to is worth its weight in gold.
How so? I've gotten delay notices from the airline, and then gone to the airport that much later. One time my delay was, if I recall, about 4 hours after the original time, and I fortunately just spent that time kicking back at home.
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Haven't dug that deep. Aware of the ADS-B data but usually if the owner went through the trouble of hiding their tail number, I figure I'll leave it alone.
How did you manage to subscribe to the monthly option of £5.99? I thought they got rid of that tier and went weekly / annual / lifetime? I used to do the same as you do and pay for the month that I needed it. Unfortunately they got rid of it (or so I thought!)
Last week I had an 8am flight from LA delayed 5 hours... Flighty warned me at 6am just as I was leaving, (TripIt was 4 minutes later) I went back in the house and slept another couple hours. the AA app showed the change 15 minutes later, BUT.. it never messaged me via a sms or push until much later when I would have been well on my way
Depends on the size of the airport obviously, but if it's a late flight that's been delayed both the check in desks and/or TSA can be closed. I know people who have missed delayed flights at medium sized airports because TSA closed like the flight took off on time.
Yeah, the instance I was thinking of was at NYC LaGuardia which AFAIK has security lines 24 hours.
Sure.. My workflow is that I never enter my flight into Flighty directly anyhow. TripIt aggregates all my plans, Flighty keeps my flights on track.
I see it as an option when I open the Flighty app and tap Settings, Flighty Pro (member), Manage Subscription.
I then select the Month-to-Month tier:
I have used both Flighty and App In The Air, as well as various airline own apps, for a few years. Now I only use Flighty. It’s not perfect, but consistently far more reliable and timely in its notifications. As one example, Flighty warned me over 12 hours ahead of any other notifications, including the airline, of a transatlantic flight cancellation. I was able to contact the airline, who confirmed the cancellation, and make alternative plans without any last minute pressure. Flighty paid for its lifetime subscription in that one event.
Ahhhh, interesting. When I do the same thing I don't have that option. My pro membership expired Dec 2022 and the 'manage subscription' is greyed out. I wonder if its because you have managed to hang onto that £5.99 monthly tier as you keep it going now and again. That option is no longer available, its the one I used to use. I would suggest try keep hold of that until it goes!
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Not quite, you need to subscribe to an active plan, then you can move. I subscribed to weekly first, then switched to monthly