31. When there is a flight delay, the departure status rarely lists the delay before I leave for the airport. How can I better determine whether my flight will actually be delayed? Also, how can I determine the intermediate stops of a particular flight?
a. (nsx) The Flight Status information page at southwest.com is a treasure trove of routing information. For example, if you ask about the arrival of your flight number into your departure city, you can find out where the flight is coming from and whether it is leaving that city on time. Then you can ask for the arrival time of the same flight number into
that city. This method allows you to work upstream all the way to the origin of the flight and make your own guess as to the downstream delay, if any, in your city. I routinely check flight status one city upstream for any non-originating flights that I take. If the flight is originating at your city, you may be able to locate the flight scheduled to arrive at the same gate 30 minutes before your departure and check its status. Unfortunately, this method will not help you detect a late-arriving crew or a tail swap.
b. (rove312) A less cumbersome way of doing this is to go to
www.flightarrivals.com . You can enter a flight number and see its full itinerary. If you want to know on an earlier day whether the flight is originating or continuing (which could influence your boarding strategy), you'll need to check this on a day when the flight follows the same schedule as on the day of travel, and while that flight is in progress or close to it. That is, if you're flying on a Saturday morning, you may need to search this on a Saturday morning.