I had a family member travelling on CO 264 last night (delayed 5.5hrs but that's a different story)
I had booked the ticket and my e-mail was in the booking. I noticed that the TripAlert emails aren't called that any more for a start, and they were sent on a timely basis each time there was a significant change in the status of the flight. Received a total of 5, formatted as follows:
At 3:12 PM 30JUN.
Continental Airlines flight 264 ORD-EWR on 30JUN delayed.
Departure time now 7:21 PM from gate B3.
Arrival time now 10:41 PM.
Departure time may change, so please be at gate prior to original scheduled departure time of 6:10 PM.
Info subject to change.
Be in the know on the go. Get real-time flight status, seat maps, standby lists and more at
http://continental.com/info
Basically the same format as a regular TripAlert email, minus the TripAlert. I also received a different email once the delay started increasing - titled Important Flight Information - Confirmation xxxxxx. This explained that there was a significant delay, and advised me to pull up the booking on co.com. Once I did that I could see that the flight had been marked for IRROPS, and could see the options to search for a different date / nearby airport which I've seen before and noted
here.
Overall this was a big step up in the communication that's normally provided in the event of delays like this. Wonder if there have been some system upgrades recently. Good job overall ^