Flighty, an Excellent New App to Track Your Flight

I’ve had early/beta access to a new iOS flight tracker that just launched.  It is called Flighty. So far in the few weeks I’ve been playing with it, I’ve been rather impressed. There is a ton of information available, and the interface is prettier that some past trackers I’ve used. There are lots of functional tools for travelers, and some goodies for the avgeeks.  Want a tail number?  It’s in there, along with inbound flight tracking.

Here is a link to the app.

Back in the day, I was a fan of Flight Track Pro. I’ve tried to find some replacements, including Trip Case, but nothing really was that good for my needs/wants.  I tried MyFlights for a while, then it stopped working. Flighty seems to fill in the gap in flight trackers very well.

An Introduction to Flighty

As mentioned, I have had a few weeks to evaluate Flighty in Beta prior to it’s official launch. The creators reached out to a few of us at Travel Codex to test it out, along with hundreds of other testers.

Flighty’s creators describe it like this: “The ultimate flight tracker with pilot-level data, the smartest fastest notifications, and clean refreshing design.” Based on my evaluation, I found it to hit most of those marks.  

Here are three key features:

1. Push Notifications. There are a multitude of notifications available. These are pretty customizable, depending on how much information you might want before or during travel.
2. Inbound plane tracking. This is a really nice feature which helps provide some warning if delays are on the horizon, certainly faster than most airlines are willing to admit to in advance. I found this very useful for domestic flights, but on foreign carriers, there didn’t seem to be as much advance information.
3. Design. I find the design to be simple, but effective, and easy to find information needed at a glance.

What Features Are Available on Flighty?

(Direct from press kit)

• Personal Flight History – Maps by year, times around the world, miles per year

• Real Flight Paths – you get an alert as soon as it’s filed to authorities
• Arrival Delay Forecast
• Connection Assistant – when you land, an alert with everything you need to make your connection
• FAA Forced Delay Alerts – direct feed of FAA communication with pilots about forced delays by the FAA. (US only) This is actually the #2 cause of delays, making Flighty the only app that automatically monitors the top causes of delays. Source: Department of Transportation, July 2019, Page 30
• Real aircraft models – the small plane on the map… it’s the correct model
• Tail Number detail
• Intelligent search for fast entry – just enter “AA100” and we parse it, and “7/10” for dates too
• Full timetable – comprehensive schedule and estimates for every step
• Calendar Sync – 1-way sync from Flighty to cal, not just export though, we keep the event up-to-date
• Sharing – easily send loved ones your latest status
• Taxi Times
• TripIt Sync
• Email Import
• Timezone change
• Baggage Claim
• Arrival Weather
• Check In Assistant
• Morning-Of Assistant
• Offline estimation
• iCloud sync – use Flighty on all your iOS devices
• No accounts – no email or login required, we never even know who you are
• Privacy – Flighty retains ZERO data from TripIt, calendar, or email automation. If, and only if, our email parsing fails, we fallback to a commercial option that retains no private data but does retain non-private data but only aggregated and anonymously

How Much Does Flighty Cost?

• Push Notifications – unbeatable push notifications at industry-leading speed
• Predict Delays – 25-Hour Where’s My Plane with alerts, FAA forced delay alerts
• Assistants – Connection Assistant, Check In Assistant, Morning-Of Assistant
• Integrations – TripIt Sync, Calendar Sync, and Email Forwarding
• Pro Data – Arrival forecast, tail number detail, taxi time, and more

My Thoughts on Flighty

Other than getting early access to the app, I haven’t received any benefit from the creators. I’ve written about several other similar apps, but until now, nothing seems to suit my needs.  I really like the highly functional and clean look of Flighty.  I’m notoriously stingy about paying for most apps, but I may make an exception for this one. I’ve found it a nice help when traveling, and I think I’d like to keep it longer term.

Give it a try, and see if it works for your needs.