Most airlines are slow to warn you of any delays or cancellations; however the airlines keep the air trafffic control system up-to-date before they update the reservation system.   This information is available publicly, however you need to know where to go to see this.  We’ve got a few websites in our arsenal of tips that can help you find this information.

To check and see if your flight is at risk of a delay is to see where your plane is coming in from; FlightRadar24.com is an easy way to do this.

At FlightRadar, you can input your flight number and look for today’s flight.   What you are looking for is the TAIL NUMBER (each plane has a unique, special ID that is also painted on the side).    Once you have the tail number, you will click on that or search for it (eg: N283AK) and look at the history.  The plane’s schedule is typically displayed as the airline assigns it to flight times and flight plans with air traffic control.  Scroll down and look for where your plane is RIGHT NOW and where its supposed to be.   If you see that plane running behind schedule, then more than likely your own flight could be late, and that requires a bit of math on your end.   Airlines will need about 45 minutes on the ground to “turn” or get a plane ready for the next flight.  If the plane doing your flight, which will depart at lets say 5:00PM, doesn’t show an arrival time into Seattle until 4:50PM, then you KNOW that your plane will be delayed!    We need to point out that some airlines don’t show tail #s until departure, but this works for almost every major US & international airline.  Its also cool to “geek out” and see where your plane has been.  You can go a step further and show your true travel geekness by registring for a free account at Flight Radar and track your own flights!  (you can see my profile here).  Note: FlightRadar24.com is free for most functions, and has a subscription service for more details & information.  We do NOT receive a kickback or compensation for referring it.

FlightRadar24 is also helpful for early-morning flights; we use it to see if the inbound plane from the NIGHT prior actually made it in!  We’ve seen many, many, many times where the evening flight to Juneau doesn’t make it in, and the airline hasn’t cancelled or delayed the next day’s flight yet (this is when we, at Alaska Travel Desk, get proactive and “protect” you on a different flight in case your flight does get cancelled).

Another website we love is FLIGHTSTATS.COM; the information here is a bit more user friendly and you can search for airports and get a live-view of *all* the airlines in and out of that airport (within a 2 or 3 day window, as well) and see if they are running ontime or not.

Once we see delays or cancellations exceed 4%, we know something is going on and will then log into Sabre (the reservation system used by Alaska Travel Desk) and see the reason for the flight delays (sadly this is not quite available to the public, only United.com is showing delay/cancellation reasons on the website).   This allows us to see if the delays/cancellations are due to weather, air traffic, mechanical, or ground related and can then work on moving people around.    Note: Flightstats.com is free for most functions, and has a subscription service for more details & information.  We do NOT receive a kickback or compensation for referring it.

Knowing WHY your flight is delayed or cancelled also sets the tone for compensation or who pays for what; if its an airline controllable delay (crew, maintenance) then the airline allows us to rebook you on another airline and also pay for hotel accommodations; if its due to weather or government (eg: shutdown), the airline won’t pay out any compensation but we can rebook you on the same airline to a later date or a different city (eg: if going to LA and into LAX, we can rebook you to Ontario, Long Beach, Burbank, or Orange County).   Some of these rebooking tools aren’t always available to travelers (Delta & United both have robust rebooking in its apps and online); so its up to your travel agent or airline to rebook you. However, the onus is on YOU to know the airline’s rules in rebooking.

One additional tool we use to monitor flights (outside of our Sabre system notifying us) is TripIt Pro.  The website & app keep track of all of your flights and alert you to any changes to your flight, and this app has a 100% success rate of notifying us before the airlines do!   The cost is $50/year and is easy to use. Note: Tripit.com is free, however flight updates/monitoring requires the paid subscription.  We do NOT receive a kickback or compensation for referring it.

As a full service travel agency, we have the ability to instantly rebook our clients when we get notification of a flight delay or cancellation; or anyone who uses a “REAL” travel agent.  Expedia & Costco do not offer rebooking support; State of Alaska travelers (on state business) use CTM.     When you book direct on the airline’s website, you are also at the mercy of the airline to rebook you, which can mean a long wait in lines at the airport or waiting on hold for hours and hours to get thru to a human.

Security lines are a big headache that catches many people by surprise.   Airports are trying harder to make this an easier process, but sometimes its just out of their hands.

TSA now has an app where you can check and see the estimated wait times at its security checkpoints, available in the Google & Apple stores, free of charge.  Its called “MyTSA” and you can learn more about it here.

We highly recommend TSA PreCheck as a part of Global Entry, which allows you to go thru a shorter security process by applying with the US Government; we encourage our travelers to get Global Entry as it also includes US Customs.  We encourage our clients in Haines & Skagway to apply for NEXXUS, which gives you all the perks of TSA PreCheck and Global Entry – but makes getting in and out of Canada 9000x faster;  you only need your NEXUS card when flying to/from Canada and you can use the shorter lines at Canadian customs.

TSA PreCheck typically has shorter & separate lines, but at some airports, even these lines can get long. Note: TSAPreCheck, Global Entry, and Nexus are paid services.  We do NOT receive a kickback or compensation for referring it.

Clear offers an extra level of shorter lines, which is similar to TSA Precheck in that you pay an annual fee (sometimes free with credit cards) that allows you to even cut TSA PreCheck and regular TSA lines.   As a frequent flyer, CLEAR has saved me countless hours in SeaTac, Dallas Love Field, Chicago O’Hare, and Miami International Airport.  Note: Clear is a paid service.  We do NOT receive a kickback or compensation for referring it.