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From where is my flight arriving?

RASRobin
Explorer B

Is there a way to find out if and where from my flight may be arriving? I'm booked on a Tuesday 11:10am flight out of LAX. I'm wondering if the plane could be late due to weather in other parts of the country.  Thanks for any insights! 

12 REPLIES 12

Re: From where is my flight arriving?

bec102896
Aviator A

@RASRobin

 

I would recommend FlightAware all you do is enter swa (for Southwest) then the flight number and you can click where is my plane coming from and you can see where it starts the day leading up to your flight. 

 

Some also use FlightView and a couple others that i can't think of off the top of my head. 

 

Hope this helps!

Blake

Re: From where is my flight arriving?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

Flight Aware and Flight View are great resources, and I believe do a good job of identifying planes as they move across the country.

 

There's another "easy button" if your flight is a continuing flight - Google "WN <flight number>" and if the flight has multiple legs as part of one flight number, the search results will show all of the stops throughout the day. The fine print on Google says that this information comes from "Flight Stats" which I've never looked up directly.

 

The "easy button" won't work if the flight number originates in LAX, you'll need to use one of the advanced searches that track the actual plane.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: From where is my flight arriving?

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I use the FlightView and Flightradar24 apps to track my flights and I too like to know where the plane is coming from and if it is on time. Unfortunately, this information is not usually available in the app until the same day or perhaps the night before. Without clear data, one trick is to search for your flight number and then see if there are earlier legs with the same flight number. Most of the time, not always, if the flight number is the same then the plane is the same.  Another idea is to look at historical information. If the flight had the same departure time it might have the same itinerary. If that still doesn't work you can match up flights looking at the assigned gates for incoming flights to your expected departure gate, but this information is highly unreliable and pretty last minute.

 

In your specific inquiry, I believe you are referring to flight 1452 from LAX to SJC, departing at 11:10am.  There are no other flights on Tuesday with flight number 1452 so relying on flight number doesn't work. However, flight 1452 had the same 11:10am departure time today so looking at the data for that plane we see it started the day in SJC as flight number 1451, went to LAS, and then to LAX. It's possible that it will have the same route on Tuesday.

20190215_132404.jpg

 

 

The BIG disclaimer here is that even if weather or other problem affected the plane that is expected to fly your route, Southwest could swap planes in LAX or somewhere else. When you go from having a big delay to suddenly being on time, that usually means your plane was swapped, leaving a different flight to wait for the incoming plane. Moral of the story... You can't rely 100% on delay information.

 

Hope that helps, 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: From where is my flight arriving?

RASRobin
Explorer B

Thank you so much!

I'm sorry to see this flight was delayed today. Next Tues I have a connecting flight to Orlando with less than 1/2 hour to get to Orlando plane!

Re: From where is my flight arriving?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@RASRobin wrote:

Thank you so much!

I'm sorry to see this flight was delayed today. Next Tues I have a connecting flight to Orlando with less than 1/2 hour to get to Orlando plane!


If you are delayed by more than 30 minutes before you board the original flight you can go ask if other routing is available (if you have carry on luggage especially). 

 

When you say 30 minutes for the connection - that's 30 minutes until boarding? That's a lot of leeway - remember that boarding wil take about 20-30 minutes or more prior to departure so although you may miss your position in line, you are still likely to catch the flight even with a moderate delay.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: From where is my flight arriving?

RASRobin
Explorer B

I'll have checked luggage and I know that limits me. My flight is supposed to arrive at 12:25 and the connecting flight is listed to "Depart" at 1pm.

Re: From where is my flight arriving?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

Edited a few points:

 

That is a tight connection! Southwest does allow people to book short connections, oftentimes there may be two similar options when you book that allow you to arrive 2-2.5 hours early and wait for the same SLC-MCO leg, or you can arrive SLC with 30-60 minutes to connect for the same flight.

 

1) the option is provided because it should work. It won’t always if there is a delay. Many people prioritize spending as little time in the airport as possible, maximizing their time on the trip. It will be possible to get to the gate in 10 minutes or so, your line position may be gone already but you should be able to make it before the door is closed. Flights to MCO tend to run long on boarding due to preboarding, kids, and full flights so there may be a hidden 10 minutes or so in the connection.

 

2) for future flights or if you care to change this one, there is probably an option for a an earlier arrival at SLC but for whatever reason it didn’t jump out as the best choice at the time of booking.

 

The options seem to be:

 

  • If flight is delayed before you check in, you could request alternate booking. 
  • If flight becomes delayed while waiting to board you’ll be stuck since you’ve checked luggage, focus on what the next flight would be from SLC to MCO, is there a later flight that would work for you, does it have seats?
  • if there is an option to arrive earlier at SLC can you change for not much extra $ if the times work?

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: From where is my flight arriving?

RASRobin
Explorer B

I'm such a noob. Didn't know hitting that check mark would tag this as the "Solution." The post may not be the Solution but it is helpful info!

Re: From where is my flight arriving?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@RASRobin wrote:

I'm such a noob. Didn't know hitting that check mark would tag this as the "Solution." The post may not be the Solution but it is helpful info!


You can go back under the gear icon on the post marked as the solution and uncheck it, you can also select multiple posts to be the answer, or one of us Community Champion posters may also adjust the accepted solutions, and if it’s still not working we can lean on the site admins.

 

From your last post it sounds like we haven’t quite solved the root issue yet of how to navigate the flight you have booked.

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.