Is there a web-application that provides the ability for interested people on the ground to “stalk” a flight?

Question

I am about to emigrate to Australia. There are a number of people interested in tracking the status of my transit across the pacific.

Is there an online application that will serve to highlight the route, identify where the plane is on that route, and notify the interested parties if there are delays?

For example: if flightwise offered a way to pre-program flight-plans for future dates and distribute that via a URL, that would be the kind of tool I was looking for.

Scenario: Flight on the 19th. ROC - ATL - LAX - SYD flights DL 1584, 17, and 17. I'd like to be able to generate a URL now that would provide tracking.

Answer 1

Try FlightAware.com. Like FlightRadar24 and Flightwise, FlightAware provides information about flights in progress such as geographic coordinates, radar track, and current speed an altitude. Unlike the others, however, FlightAware offers a unique URL for each flight, including future flights, that can be bookmarked or distributed in emails or other messages.

See for example http://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL863 , in the "Activity Log" table below the tracking map.

I believe they only publish the URLs after a flight plan has been filed, however, so you will only be able to distribute it a few days out at best.

Answer 2

I believe you're probably interested in something like Flightradar24.com - you enter the flight in, and you can see exactly where it is, altitude, speed etc. I've used it on a regular basis for when relatives or friends are flying in to my city.

Answer 3

Via the NYTimes I found that TripIt can serve as an itinerary repository that can be shared. People can then use this repository to check flight status.

With the map tab, my itinerary should be able to make magic-lines on a map as my trip progresses.

Answer 4

It seems you want to build or use specifically a web app. Still, the recently updated Kayak app for iOS allows you to track flights, as does the even more recently updated Flight+, which has a rather gorgeous interface.