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Tracking your iPhone every step of the way with flightaware

I

ineel

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 8, 2010
211
11
Maybe I have just a little OCD when it comes to waiting for apple products. Anyways, a lot of people have been getting the "preparing for shipment" status on their order page. Once your iPhone ships from Shenzhen, it will fly across the globe to you most likely through FedEx. The iPhone is manufactured in Shenzhen, it will be packed an shipped from there. It will then be trucked to Hong Kong which is basically a few miles away. There it will board a FedEx plane. Once the phone is on the plane, the Fedex uses the plane's tail number as the tracking number for all the packages on the plane. When the plane departs the airport, FedEx will update your tracking info as "departed/left xxx" and give you a time. That time correlates to the departure time of the plane. Go to flightaware.com and using the "browse by operator" look for all FedEx "FDX" flights. The map will show you all FedEx plane in the air currently and their approximate position. Scroll down and look at the list of each flights. Look for all FedEx flights that have their origin as the place your package departed from. This will most likely be Hong Kong Intl (VHHH). There will most likely be multiple FedEX flights from the origin so you want to go ahead and match the departure time with the departure time on your tracking information, there it will also tell you where its flying to. There are several routes that FedEx may route your package. The most likely route it will take is to Anchorage, Alaska where it will be inspected by customs then onto Memphis for domestic overnight flights to your destination. FedEx recently acquired some long range Boeing 777F which have the capability to bypass the Anchorage fuelstop/customs and fly direct to Memphis. It's more likely FedEx will use their older MD-11F to Anchorage so they can be sorted there and fly to FedEx's regional hubs in Dallas, Indianapolis, Newark, or Oakland instead of Memphis to relieve congestion there. Because it is impossible to tell which route your phone will take to you, You can uses these same steps above to find which connecting flights your phone will be on using the tracking information fedex provides.

When i preOrdered my iPhone 4 2 years ago, my iphone took this journey: Hong Kong>Anchorage>Memphis>Sacramento
I also ordered a bumper case which came separately and took this journey:
Hong Kong>Anchorage>Oakland--trucked to--Sacramento


Hopefully this helps for anyone that is OCD about their iphone 5 shipment progress! Don't forget to press refresh a billion times a day!
 
Wow, what an informative post! The process you describe is actually intriguing, from a logistical perspective. I would be very interested in knowing what type of aircraft my phone flies on (something that probably only fascinates engineers), where it stops, etc.
 
Apple stopped trusting commercial planes for transportation, so they are turning to C-130s for the iPhone 5's.

AIR_C-130J_lg.jpg
 
My phones always come on UPS. Is it the same procedure?

I've never been OCD about this before, but I think you might have messed with my head.
 
You can get the tracking number faster by checking using the reference number field instead. Its your phone number.

You can find out when the phone is leaving before you even can get your tracing number from apple this way.
 
ineel said:
When i preOrdered my iPhone 4 2 years ago, my iphone took this journey: Hong Kong>Anchorage>Memphis>Sacramento
I also ordered a bumper case which came separately and took this journey:
Hong Kong>Anchorage>Oakland--trucked to--Sacramento
Click to expand...

Because of the multiple routes, people's orders will go into 'prepared for shipment' and ship at different times, even though they will all arrive on the same day. With the ipad2 I preordered, it went straight to Oakland instead of Memphis, while several other Bay Area residents had theirs ship 2 days earlier than mine and head to Memphis instead. Turned out all 16GB Black 3G iPads shipped last and went direct to regional hubs, while many of the other models went through Memphis. Mine happened to get stuck in customs in HK for 3 days, but still made it from HK to my door in less than 24 hours and arrived on time.
 
billinaz said:
You can get the tracking number faster by checking using the reference number field instead. Its your phone number.

You can find out when the phone is leaving before you even can get your tracing number from apple this way.
Click to expand...

My shipping phone number, account main phone number, or the number on the line which is being upgraded?
 
zman2100 said:
Last year most iPhone 4S shipments came via UPS, but you can track it the same way.
Click to expand...

Just a reminder to all: last year UPS and FedEx stopped updating status due to the extreme loads on their systems.

So depending on when that happens this year, the tracking status of your iPhone may not be updated after Anchorage until after the knock on your door.

Dave
 
ineel said:
Maybe I have just a little OCD when it comes to waiting for apple products.
Click to expand...

I was wondering how many iPhones an MD-11 can haul, but then another question popped: when iPhones are shipped from China are they already individually packed in the boxes we receive? Or are they shipped in bulk and packaged for individual delivery at some later point in the shipping process?

So, back to the original question: how many iPhones can an MD-11 carry?
 
Ever since I started working for one of the largest international couriers in the world, my faith things arriving on time decreased substantially :p
 
tugger said:
I was wondering how many iPhones an MD-11 can haul, but then another question popped: when iPhones are shipped from China are they already individually packed in the boxes we receive? Or are they shipped in bulk and packaged for individual delivery at some later point in the shipping process?

So, back to the original question: how many iPhones can an MD-11 carry?
Click to expand...

The 777 can carry about 178,000 lbs from China to Mem non-stop and the -11 about 163,000 but can't go as far.

777 global advantage video
 
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