4 ms·

I'm trying to understand how this differs from http://www.tripit.com/ http://www.tripit.com/

by zaatar 17y ago

tim_sw 17y ago
I think tripit tells you delays when the airline/faa actually announces delays, vs flightcaster which tries to do it earlier.
- spolsky 17y ago
  Read this: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/10/13.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/10/13.html It's pretty rare for airlines to be honest about delays at departure time. Rather than update their online databases when they know they're running late, they wait until the flight has taken off, because then they only have to update it once. It's pretty maddening. I can't tell you how often I've been standing at a gate with a big LED sign that says ON TIME for, say, a 5 pm departure, when the current time is 5:30 and there's no aircraft in sight. For frequent travellers this may give you enough information to get rebooked before everybody else does. For example if there's an 8AM flight and a 10AM flight, but the 8AM flight is running 3 hours late, there's going to be a stampede to get rebooked on the 10AM flight, which might only have a few empty seats. The first person to figure this out is going to get one of those seats. This app is very reasonably priced for the audience of frequent flyers who would benefit from it.
  - bradfordcross 17y ago
    Joel, I didn't realize you had a rant on this topic. :-) It is always great to see that other people are as annoyed by this as I am. It feels great to attack this problem with modern technology! :-)
  - jwilliams 17y ago
    Joel - you are spot on with this... I've seen this happen so many times. They don't want people to leave the gate, so they'll trickle out delays (15mins, 30mins another 15mins). The other one I love -- When they are late they announce it as "due to late arrival of the incoming aircraft". Not sure what this is exactly meant to mean, but to me this is "we're late".
    - akronim 17y ago
      Root cause analysis isn't really their strength, in their announcements anyway. Do they think people would get upset if they knew the core reason for the problem or something?
  - bhousel 17y ago
    Yes, the on-time numbers are really shady. Because so much of an airline's performance is measured by their on-time percentage, they find all kinds of tricks to stretch the truth and shave minutes off the reported delay times. These numbers can significantly affect their funding, performance reviews, regulatory oversight, contracts with airports, unions, etc. More good reading: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/mcgee/2009-06-24-measuring-flight-times_N.htm http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/mcgee/2009-06-24-me...

I'm trying to understand how this differs from http://www.tripit.com/ http://www.tripit.com/

by zaatar 17y ago

I'm trying to understand how this differs from http://www.tripit.com/ http://www.tripit.com/

I think tripit tells you delays when the airline/faa actually announces delays, vs flightcaster which tries to do it earlier.

spolsky 17y ago
Read this: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/10/13.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/10/13.html It's pretty rare for airlines to be honest about delays at departure time. Rather than update their online databases when they know they're running late, they wait until the flight has taken off, because then they only have to update it once. It's pretty maddening. I can't tell you how often I've been standing at a gate with a big LED sign that says ON TIME for, say, a 5 pm departure, when the current time is 5:30 and there's no aircraft in sight. For frequent travellers this may give you enough information to get rebooked before everybody else does. For example if there's an 8AM flight and a 10AM flight, but the 8AM flight is running 3 hours late, there's going to be a stampede to get rebooked on the 10AM flight, which might only have a few empty seats. The first person to figure this out is going to get one of those seats. This app is very reasonably priced for the audience of frequent flyers who would benefit from it.
- bradfordcross 17y ago
  Joel, I didn't realize you had a rant on this topic. :-) It is always great to see that other people are as annoyed by this as I am. It feels great to attack this problem with modern technology! :-)
- jwilliams 17y ago
  Joel - you are spot on with this... I've seen this happen so many times. They don't want people to leave the gate, so they'll trickle out delays (15mins, 30mins another 15mins). The other one I love -- When they are late they announce it as "due to late arrival of the incoming aircraft". Not sure what this is exactly meant to mean, but to me this is "we're late".
  - akronim 17y ago
    Root cause analysis isn't really their strength, in their announcements anyway. Do they think people would get upset if they knew the core reason for the problem or something?
- bhousel 17y ago
  Yes, the on-time numbers are really shady. Because so much of an airline's performance is measured by their on-time percentage, they find all kinds of tricks to stretch the truth and shave minutes off the reported delay times. These numbers can significantly affect their funding, performance reviews, regulatory oversight, contracts with airports, unions, etc. More good reading: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/mcgee/2009-06-24-measuring-flight-times_N.htm http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/mcgee/2009-06-24-me...