This severely limits your abilities to change your plans or make an educated decision on how you want to handle things.

When I am flying, it’s mostly for work and I need to be where I need to be when they need me there – dig? So a tool like FlightCaster is invaluable to me. You can check it out by going to FlightCaster.com.

Once you are there you can search for your specific flight number or for a specific route. The best part about FlightCaster is that they make flight delay predictions based on scientific data. It works on the notion that if flights before your flight are delayed that will trickle down to you. They also have access to past problems and other information that let them create algorithms that magically tell them if the flight is going to be delayed or not.

According to their blog, flights are delayed all the time. Check out this data:

June Stats

Some informative (or at least interesting) stats on airport flight delays for June 2009.

Raw data from the Department of Transportation (crunched by FlightCaster):

-Most delayed flights (everyday flights, in average time late):

1) American Eagle 4823, Boston – New York LaGuardia

2) Delta 147, Newark – Atlanta

3) Comair (Delta Express) 6662, Charlotte – JFK

4) Mesa (United Express) 7281, Washington Dulles – Austin

5) Jetblue 547, Newark – West Palm Beach

-Least delayed major route: Las Vegas to Kansas City (averaged 2 minutes late all month)

-Most delayed major route: Miami to JFK, averaged 48 minutes late in June

Pretty mind blowing huh? Let’s see how FlightCaster works and how it can help learn what the FAA doesn’t want you to know!

Go ahead and type in a flight number and airline and you will get a page that looks similar to this (hopefully you won’t see red!)

There will be a big red or green box announcing if your plane will or will not be delayed.  Then they go on to give you the percentages of what will happen. Awesome for a betting man! (Does that make anyone else think of that episode of Friends?)

Below that will be the mitigating factors in the answer. You can see the break down below. They are Other delays, airport status for departure and arriving airports, official airline status, departing weather and arriving weather.

And now lets check on my friend’s flight today…

Awesome it seems that there is an 85% chance it will be on time! Woot.

You might be also interested in Top 5 Airline Flight Tracking Websites that Dave covered earlier. There are also a few similar websites listed under flights section on MakeUseOf Directory.

How do your keep up with airport flight delays? When your flight is delayed what do you do? Wait or reschedule? Let us know in the comments!

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• Top 5 Airline Flight Tracking Websites (12)
• 6 Sites To Make Flying A Whole Lot Easier (15)
• 3 Must-check Traveller Websites before your Next Trip (4)
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Time spent getting a ticket and waiting for your flight (which is often many, many hours) can be miserable, but it doesn’t have to be. Using these five tools, you’ll be able to make your time in the airport a little more bearable, and maybe even a little shorter.

A disclaimer: as I’m in the US, I can’t vouch for all of these tips working anywhere else. Most of them should, but some sites and policies are different outside the US.

1. Book It

Instead of using the airline sites, try using Tripeedo. Tripeedo’s an easy way to search most of the major airlines for tickets, as well as some of the best bargain sites like Kayak, Travelocity, and Orbitz.

Finding a flight’s as easy as typing where you’re coming from and going to, and Tripeedo does all the searching for you. You won’t buy your ticket from Tripeedo, but it’ll put you on the page you want to see – unlike most airline sites.

For more, check out Tripeedo’s directory listing.

2. Check Your Flight

If your flight’s going to be delayed, it’s often going to happen well before you even get to the airport. Luckily, there are several ways to check your flight status before you even leave.

You can check your airline’s website, but the status page is usually hard to find. Instead, try Googling your airline and flight number, like “Delta flight 365″ for a quick status check at the top of your search results.

If you want to know much more about your flight, try FlightAware. You’ll get a map of the flight’s path, with how far away it is, how fast it’s going, and a whole bunch of other useless but fun information.

3. Check In Faster

Most airlines these days allow for online check-in. That means you avoid the long lines, the obnoxious people, and the terror of almost missing your flight when the attendant is inhumanly slow.

Go online, check in and print your boarding pass, and head straight to the gate. In just a few minutes of research, I found that American Airlines, United, Continental, Delta, Alaska Air, Frontier Air, Southwest and Spirit Airlines all offer online check in – and that’s just the first page of Google! To find your airline’s site, Google “online check in” plus your airline, and you’ll be good to go.

4. Fly Through Security

Airport security’s a pain, but there’s just no way around it. You can, however, make the process go a whole lot faster by following some critical steps. Wired Magazine created a how-to Wiki called “Fly Through Airport Security.”

Among the useful tips are things like checking the TSA website to find out the average wait times, and only using two bins for your stuff. Got a great tip? You can add it to the Wiki right on the Wired site.

5. Find An Outlet

Outlets are a precious commodity in the airport. Though I recommend to always bring a power strip, or at least a power splitter, to the airport when you travel, I nearly always forget to do so.

Thanks to my failure of a memory, I rely on the Air Power Wiki. The Wiki is a guide to airports all over the world, letting you know where to look for a free outlet. It’s often updated, and you can even update it yourself- either way, it’s a killer way to find a power source anywhere. Best of all, the outlets are often in places I wouldn’t think to look otherwise, like this one in Dublin: “At the Gate Clock bar: turn left in the main bar door, look for tables on the left: the table just past the elevator has a pair of sockets near it on the bar side.”

6. Find Wi-Fi

You’re through security, ready to get on your flight – and your flight gets delayed for 8 hours. Problem? Not if you know where to look! Free or cheap Wi-Fi is out there, just waiting to be found.

Before you leave for the airport, check a couple of these sites to find out your Internet situation. First, try the list of “Free wifi airports” compiled by SmallBusiness that tells you which airports, and where in those airports, you’ll find free Wi-Fi. If you can’t find free, find cheap. TravelPost has a guide to 219 US airports with Wireless locations, types and prices for each one. For the most complete list, though without prices, try weather.com’s “Airports with Wi-Fi” list. You’ll be able to see just about every location in every American airport that will offer you Wi-Fi, free or otherwise.

Armed with a boarding pass, the right amount of time, the right security tips, Wi-Fi and a power source, the airport won’t seem like such a hassle anymore. Flight’s delayed for 3 days? Who cares, you’ve got Wi-Fi! Just don’t steal my outlet.

Photos: Travelin’ Librarian, alist, catcubed, futureshape

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A lot of people complain about Google but you have to give them credit, their search functions are some of the best around right now. So, since there’s so much that you can do with Google Search, I decided to share a few shortcuts with you that I’m sure will come in handy.

Package Tracking

When tracking packages, most people head straight to the shipping site such as FedEx, UPS, or USPS to see details. But did you know that now you can enter tracking numbers right into the Google search box?

First you’ll need the tracking number of your order, which you can get from the actual site/company that you ordered from. Second you’ll need to know how it’s being shipped (via FedEx, UPS, or USPS). That’s it.

If your package is being shipped by FedEx, you would enter “fedex 121212121212” into the Google search box. If your package is being shipped by UPS, you would enter “ups 121212121212” into the Google search box. If your package is being shipped by USPS, you would enter “usps 121212121212” into the Google search box. Of course, in all three cases you would use your actual tracking number in place of “121212121212″.

Below I’ve entered the tracking number of a USPS order I want to track. If the tracking number is valid, you’ll see an image of a package show up with a link to view the tracking information for your order. Clicking on it will then take you to the site (in this case USPS) in order to see the full details.

Flight Tracking

You can look up information on any flight by simply typing the airline name or code followed by a space and flight number into the Google search box.

Below I’ve entered the name of an airline and the flight number that I’d like information on. If the flight information you enter is valid, you’ll see an image of an airplane along with brief stats of the flight. You’re also given a link that you can click on to see more detailed information from the actual site the stats were taken from.

Calculations & Conversions

Do you often find yourself reaching for a calculator to figure out simple calculations? I don’t know about you but I do not keep a calculator handy and I often go through at least 3 steps to open up the Windows calculator. Well there’s no need to do either when you have Google handy.

To use Google’s built-in calculator functions, you simply enter the calculations that you’d like solved right in the search box. You can even do more advanced math functions such as geometry and trigonometry. If you don’t remember what all the advanced math functions are don’t worry about it, there’s a very handy Google Quick Reference Cheat Sheet that you can use. This Cheat Sheet shows you all of the things that you can type into the Google Search Box in order to calculate basic or advanced math functions.

The Cheat Sheets also has a list of Units of Measures and Conversions that can be used to converts units and currency. In order to calculate conversions you would type in things like: three quarters of a cup in teaspoons; 130 lbs in kg; 65 mph in kph; 1500 in hex; 64 in binary; etc.

Weather

Finding out the weather in Google is pretty easy. You simply type the word “weather” followed by the city and state, zip code, or city and country. So, below I searched for the weather in Fort Riley, Kansas and Google gave me the current weather along with a forecast for the next 4 days.

Time

If you have family or friends in other parts of the world, you can easily find out what time it is in their area. You simply type the word “time” followed by the name of the city or country and Google will show you the time, day, and time zone for that location. Personally, this really comes in handy for me since I have a husband that will be deployed soon and all of my family and friends are in 2 different time zones from myself.

Dictionary

This is definitely something that comes in handy for me a lot as well. You can see the definition for any word or phrase by simply typing “definition” followed by a space and then the actual word(s) that you wanted defined. If you want to see a list of definitions from various resources across the Web, type “define:” followed by a space and the word(s). As you can see below, you’re given multiple definitions along with the website from where they were taken from.

Movies

Google allows you to quickly find show times for movies playing in your area. You can do this by simply typing in the word “movies” or the film title followed by your zip code in the Google search box. You will then get a list of up to two theaters; if there are more than two theaters listed, you can click the “More theaters” link to see the rest. This is definitely a lot quicker and more convenient than calling the theater and listening to a 5 minute lineup – especially if the movie you want to see is at the end of the lineup.

UPC Codes

This is definitely one of the more unique Google Search shortcuts that I’ve seen. You can find information about any item by simply typing in the UPC Code of the item into the Google search box. If you don’t know, the UPC Code for an item appears at the bottom of the item’s bar code.

Below I’ve entered the UPC Code of a random item I found in my house. If the UPC Code you enter is valid, you’ll see an image of a bar code along with a link to view more information about the item.

Phone Book & Residential Listings

If you need to look up a US residence phone number or address you can do that as well. Simply enter the person’s name along with a city, state, or zip code in the Google search box. If that person is listed in the phone book, you’ll see an image of a telephone along with their name, phone number and address. Google lists up to three matching results for you to see; to see more, simply click on the “Phone book results for” link. Google also gives you the option to see a residential map for that person.

So, as you can see, Google really makes a lot of useful functions easier and more convenient. Do you know of any other cool Google Search shortcuts? If so, feel free to share by posting them in the comments.

Charnita is a social media addict & Internet junkie. She blogs about internet & blog tools, website & blog promotion, web 2.0 & social media at her Social Web Tools blog.

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Insufficient information for your trip?

Try WikiTravel

WikiTravel is a user-powered travel guide. There are about 18,000 travel guides and articles written and edited by regular travellers from around the globe. You can find pretty much anything here. So if you’re looking for relatively non-biased destination reviews definitely check it out.

There is one other emerging website that I want to mention here. Chokti is a YouTube-inspired site where you can find virtual tours of places you are planning to visit. At the moment there are about 1200 video/audio tours there. Mostly submitted by users themselves. While it’s highly unlikely that you’ll find a video tour of some remote village in India here, it does cover most of the major cities. Chokti does not require an account – however if you plan to upload videos, you need to register.

Hotel Reviews

For hotel review, pics, and map locations I recommend TripAdvisor. Not always true and objective, but usually offers enough info to get a basic idea. If photos are not enough and you want a visual preview of the hotel then try TVtrip, Trivop and Tripr.

Lonely on your trip?

Try Dopplr

Dopplr is essentially a virtual travel log. It allows you to add friends, share your travel schedule with them and discover other people with similar travel plans. It includes an action-feed on your profile page that shares all your current travel activity with all your friends. In addition to comparing travel schedules with friends, Dopplr also allows you to link your Dopplr account with Facebook and share travel activity with Facebook buddies.

Another useful feature Dopplr has to offer is picture sharing. It allows you to link your profile to your Flickr account and share travel pictures with friends and family. Registration is absolutely free, and they rarely send you emails so there’s no need to worry about “Great Offers” or “Daily Newsletters”. Check out Dopplr infocommercial below:

Delays on your trip?

Try FlightStats

Weather and air traffic make travelling a pain. With flight stats, you’ll know of any flight delays and weather issues BEFORE you leave for your trip. We have already briefly mentioned it here.

Flight Stats uses a cool map in which all major airports are mapped out and color-coded. The colors represent the Flight Delay Index which is based on weather conditions and data sent out from the airports themselves. Red representing major delays and green representing smooth flying. Upon clicking on the dots, you’ll receive more detailed information about the airport in question, such as the exact temperature and the weather conditions.

A sub-feature of the map is the weather overlay. With this feature activated, it is possible to view cloud conditions overhead and predict beforehand if there will be any delays.

If you usually leave for the airport a hour and a half before your flight, you can glance at the ticker-tape at the top of the webpage that shows minute-by-minute delay updates on major international and domestic flights.

Some other included tools are mobile/email updates, real-time flight tracker, airport information, etc.

Other

Not so long ago Aibek published 10 travel websites that should be bookmarked. Check it out as well, there are a number of really useful tools there. These include ATM locator, Taxi fare estimator, public-transport maps and more.

(By) Anthony is a student, blogger and a distance runner. In his free time, he enjoys running track, and sifting through the web. Drop by his blog at Radicitus, Dude!

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Here are a few websites which can make tracking flight information easy, if not downright fun and interesting!

1. FBOWeb.com

This website mother of all airline tracking websites.

Not only does it show the usual information: departure time, estimated arrival time, progress bar, and automatically updating map; but it also integrates in nicely with Google Earth!

This map updates in real time, and has the airline flight’s location and altitude coordinates.

As an added bonus, this website includes links that would satisfy any airplane nerd’s fantasies. Air Traffic Control (ATC) live audio feeds are a click away.

2. FlightStats.com

A close second is Flightstats.com. This site includes a ton of information about flight tracking and other travel information like airport delays and travel tips.

Another cool thing that flightstats.com has are widgets, facebook applications, and RSS feeds for airport delays.

3. FlightView.com

This service includes brightly colored maps as well as automatically updated information on scheduled and estimated arrival times.

4. FlightAware.com

Although this site is more bare-bones than some of the rest, it includes all of the required information in an easy to read format. It also has links to airport information which could come in handy for amateur pilots or other airport junkies.

5. FlyteComm.com

Besides taking the booby prize for their domain name, this site also includes the basic information you need. It might be good if you are using a mobile browser to track a flight or if you are at the airport and need the down and dirty information on the flight you are waiting on.

BONUS: Google

Typing the airline and flight number as a google search gives you one of those information boxes at the top of the search results page.

Hopefully the above sites will satisfy your itch for airline flight status information!

(By) Dave is an IT Manager by day and technology consultant by night. He is interested in all things internet, but especially interested in system administration, network security, history, and backpacking. He lives near Philadelphia with his family. See his blog at www.systembash.com.

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Here are a bunch of websites that are diverse, interesting and even just quirky for anyone that is planning a trip or is simply a travel-addict.

MetrO – Public Transport Guide for your mobile phone

Métro is a free worldwide public transport guide can be used on the web and on most existing smart phones. Download the program for over 250 cities wordlwide and have an easy subway, bus and tram station guide rite on your phone. It lets you calculate travel time, major landmarks (in major cities), shortest distances and of-course travel direction between any stations.

Highlights include:

• - directions and information to major tourist attractions (in selected cities)
• - download maps to your phone for selected cities.
• - easy public transport search function between stops.
• - and lots more

In case you need a printable Metro map for a city you’re about to visit, also check out SubwayMap in MUO directory.

TripIt – Travel Itinerary planner

TripIt is a handy itinerary planner for those going on an independent trip. Simply forward your individual booking confirmations, reservation emails etc. TripIt recognizes these emails and creates a master itinerary that puts together all the individual pieces, provides extra information where appropriate (maps, weather information etc), enables the user to add notes and ultimately share and collaborate on this master itinerary with others.

For more details and a review see ‘TripIt: Travel Itinerary Planner and Organizer‘

ATMLocator – Global ATM locator

A free service from VISA that lets you instantly locate ATM cash machines in your vicinity. Simply select country and city name, enter pincode (optional) and get address details and map for each ATM. Also access it while on the move from any web-enabled device. Over 170 countries covered.

CyroFinders – Real-time worldwide flight arrival and departure information

Get real-time information on flight arrival and departures for all major airports in the world. View airport location on a map, check weather information, and more.

Yapta – Flight-ticket price tracker

Yapta is neat service that allows users to track the price of the flight-ticket that they want to purchase or have already purchased . For people yet to buy a ticket, Yapta allows you to purchase the ticket when prices drop. If you have already bought a ticket, Yapta still allows you to track and see if prices drop. Many airlines have policies that allow for travelers to get refunds/vouchers (of the price difference) if the price of the ticket that they have purchased drops.

See full features list @ Yapta: Get Refund on Flight Tickets

AirlineMeals – Huge directory of airline meals from around the world

Fascinating user-contributed database of airline meals (over 5000 images of airline meals). Users submit photographs, rate, provide meal details (airline, class of travel, flight details etc) for each meal. Browse meals by airline, peak into crew meals, special meals, meals from the past (1970’s, 80’s), behind the scene images, airport lounge meals etc.

SleepingInAirports – Guide for camping overnight or a few hours in an airport

Ever needed to camp overnight in an airport either out of low funds or simply bad flight connections? This is the perfect website for such a situation. Browse and read through brief overview of the airport along with user-submitted review on safety, facility, photos (where available), etc. A must for solo or women travelers who may have to experience such a situation. I personally have used it a couple of times when I had to camp overnight at airports ranging from Paris- Charles de Gaulle to Hamburg International airport and wanted to make sure that the airport even allows people to camp over.

SeatGuru – Extensive guide on airplane seating, in-flight amenities etc.

Provides detailed information or a seat map (best to worst seats on the plane), amenities (power chords, bathrooms, tv’s) for different aircraft models of over 40 different major commercial airlines. Simply select the airline followed by the aircraft model, and you are provided with general information on the airline (website, frequent flier partners etc) along with a seat map (you get a map of the seating structure of the plane- the best seats, what amenities are available on which seats etc).

TheBathroomDiaries- “Search the globe for a clean bathroom”

Submit, rate and search through over 12000 bathrooms across the globe, read about the world’s best-rated bathrooms etc. It gets even better, you can access the website rite from your cell phone. For readers based in the US, see MizPee.

Did we miss something? Let us know in comments. Enjoy!

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