Bourne

Is there any way to figure out where an exact plane/equipment flew in from...or would be flying next...

The flight in question is... AA 1648. ORD-RDU. Where did it come from and where is it going next.

If you know the flight number on which the plane is currently being used, it would be a little easier to predict delays.

andrzej

Yes, go to www.trip.com, and find flight tracker, That version is free, but if you really want to go big, you could subscribe to Flight tracker for all the flights in the world (I think). Anyway, this one will do all the US flights.

Bourne

Trip.com tells you where the flight is. It does not tell you what equipment is currently being used.

Hope this makes it more clearer...

On what flight is Nxxxxx(tail number) gonna be used next.

andrzej

I do believe it tells you the equipment as well as gives you a detailed map during the flight.

Doppy

It's tough to say. If you want to check up on a direct flight on its way to its intermediate connection AND the same equipment is being used on the continuation, you can use trip.com.

Otherwise it's really tough to find out where the inbound equipment will be coming from. That's subject to change up until the time you get on it and take off, so there's no good way of finding out. Sometimes you can get an agent on the phone to tell you the day of the flight, but RDURES1 was telling me that they're not supposed to give that information out. A lot of times they lie and tell you they don't have access to it; rarely they'll volunteer it if you're being delayed as a result.

On the other hand, Admirals Club agents are usually pretty forthcoming on the day of your flight, especially if your flight is going to be delayed as a result.

d

miAAflyer

Sometimes the gate agents will tell you. Some times they won't. I have found it easier to determine where the equipment is coming from when you are in a non-hub airport. If you frequently take the same flight, this information is invaluable because it is the only way to make sure your flight is on time (or close to on time). Any one else have any suggestions on how to find out originating equipment info?

FoothillFlyer

The information is readily available to employees in SABRE, but I am fairly certain the company would have security concerns about tracking a particular aircraft.

rmc1

This site lists some items out, but not sure how detailed it is:

http://www.flytecomm.com/cgi-bin/trackflight


[This message has been edited by rmc1 (edited 08-08-2002).]

777Brit

It's only available in the DECS (Dispatch Environment Control System) partition within Sabre, which is use in flight dispatch and at the airport and only by certain employees.

AA Res agents are not lying when they say the can't access that info. Their Sabre access is restricted and most Res agents cannot access DECS within Sabre, they only get RES (Reservations) access.

ccengct

When I'm at an airport, if my departure gate is X, I always look at the arrivals monitor to see what is coming into X and when it will get there. Delays are often detectable this way before they are posted against the outbound.

Over the Internet, you can do a similar thing but you may have to check all the cities that AA flies into your airport from. Easy for some airports but impractical at ORD, DFW, etc.

There's no way for an outsider to get the tail number of the aircraft that I know of, except seeing it at the airport.

AAFA

AA Res agents are not lying when they say the can't access that info. Their Sabre access is restricted and most Res agents cannot access DECS within Sabre, they only get RES (Reservations) access. [/B][/QUOTE]

I had no idea this was true. Thanks for the info. I wonder what the reasoning is behind that. I guess they have a different way of accessing their schedules. The cockpit and f/a's use DECS for everything.

AAFA

it's a little unnerving that you can monitor the airplanes like that.

FoothillFlyer

AA agents here at SJC use DECS extensively. They use it for aircraft routing, flight information, delay information and crewlists for security verification.

777Brit

Yes, but it's not common for reservations agents to use DECS or FOS (Flight Operations System), so when you call Res to find out an aircraft routing, they really can't tell you. They're not lying or being difficult.

It's widely used by airport agents, to find out information such as the crew list (without which they cannot let any crew members onboard), aircraft type and number and routing information. Flight attendants and cockpit crews use DECS/FOS widely for scheduling, trip bids and so on. Reservations agents dont have their schedules in the Flight Operations System. There's no point! Their shift-bids can be anything from 1 month to three months and they are usually handled by the local manpower personnel in each res centre.

[This message has been edited by 777Brit (edited 08-11-2002).]

FoothillFlyer

777BRIT,

You are of course completely correct about RES having no access...I did not mean to imply otherwise. I just wanted to note how widespread DECS use is in the field.