The quick check: a web search
Search the flight number and most search engines show its status at the top: on time or delayed, departed or not, the estimated arrival. On an iPhone, a flight number in a Messages chat is usually tappable and shows the same thing. That’s fine for a glance, but nothing tells you when it changes. You have to keep checking.
The detail: the airline or a flight tracker
The airline’s website and flight-tracking sites like FlightAware show more: the gate, the aircraft’s position, the full history of delays. Some airlines will text updates to any phone number you enter. It all works, but you’re juggling a different site per airline, and none of them know you’re the one driving to the airport.
Alerts, and a time to leave: a tracking app
A flight-tracking app sends the changes to you: the delay, the gate change, the landing, the baggage carousel. In TripTidy, flights you’re not on live in their own Watching tab, away from your own trips:
- Tap +, enter the flight number and date, and pick the leg if the number flies more than one that day.
- Add who’s on it if you like (“Mom”), so the alerts say whose flight it is.
- If you’re collecting them, you get a “leave by” aimed at when they’ll reach the kerb, not the runway, and it moves when the flight does. See when to leave for a pickup.
- On the day it runs on your Lock Screen, with a live map of the plane. Swipe it away when they’re home.
Flights you book for someone else show up there automatically, and if they use TripTidy themselves they can share a flight with you in two taps.
Getting the right flight
- Use the flight number exactly as it appears on their booking or boarding pass.
- Some numbers fly several legs a day. Check the departure and arrival airports match.
- Overnight flights land the day after they leave. Track by the departure date.