Whether there's a government shutdown, storm brewing, or something else, disruptions are inevitable in air travel. And no site or service does a better job notifying you of changes or cancellations than Flighty – often before (and sometimes long before) your airline itself. 

As its name might suggest, Flighty is a flight tracking app that ingests and distills your entire travel day into a clean, sleek interface. And while it's invaluable for tracking delays and cancellations, it can do much more. The app can also help you dig into the minutiae of air travel like how old your aircraft is, tally up all your flights and mileage for the year in a beautiful “passport”-style map, calculate your estimated taxi time before and after takeoff, and more. More recently, the app also added tools analyzing your connection times to warn you of potential problems as well as Flighty Friends, to automatically track loved ones' travels.

Perhaps best of all, when you link your Flighty account to your email (or, better yet, your TripIt account), the app does all the work for you. You don't have to lift a finger for Flighty to start working for you once you've set up your account.

One thing to note: As of publication, Flighty is only available on the Apple App Store … and it's unclear when (or even if) that will change. Sorry, Android users.

Flighty is a free app, though the enhanced “Flighty Pro” subscription with additional features clocks in at several different price points – which, for my money, is worth every penny. Plus, all users get the full “Flighty Pro” treatment on their first flight. 

Let's dig into why I love this travel tool so much and why I think it should be a staple for all avid travelers. And don't miss our podcast with Flighty's CEO and founder diving into this amazing tool!

 

 

Flighty vs. Flighty Pro: What's the Difference?

Flighty is a free app you can download from your smartphone's app store. With a Flighty Pro subscription, you get more timely alerts and details for all of your travels.

Flighty Pro is included for your first flight after you download Flighty, so you don't have to wait and wonder what it's like to get going. After that, you have to decide on a plan. You have a few options:

 

flighty pricing tiers

 

Trying it out for a week is a nice option if you've got some high-stakes travel coming up but aren't sure it's worth a longer (or larger) investment. Flighty also offers an unlimited Family plan for $119 a year, allowing you to share Flighty Pro with up to six users. 

Wondering what you get with the free version versus paying for Flighty Pro? Here are the key differences:

 

Free Flighty app

  • Flight data
  • Live data
  • Weather
  • Historical flight lookup for the past 365 days
  • Lock screen widgets (limited refresh)
  • Flight route data
  • Aircraft model and image
  • Personal flight log and map

 

Flighty Pro (from $59 a year)

  • Push alerts
  • Where's my plane tracking for 25 hours pre-flight
  • Live inbound plane tracking
  • Live lock screen widgets
  • FAA delay alerts
  • Delay predictions
  • Arrival forecast
  • TripIt sync
  • Calendar sync
  • Email forwarding
  • Tail number
  • Taxi times

 

As you can see, all the fastest, immediate data from Flighty comes under the “Pro” service, including all push alerts. Those push alerts can be absolutely invaluable when things go wrong. 

But if you only fly a few times a year and don't need up-to-the-second flight updates, the free app has a ton of valuable data, too.

 

The Power of Flighty's Notifications

The most valuable parts of a Flighty Pro subscription are the push alerts, up-to-the-second updates about any important changes to your flight. 

These can be invaluable in a handful of situations, like: 

  • Heads-up about a flight cancellation before the airline itself lets you know, giving you a head start on moving to another flight before fellow passengers
  • Earlier notifications about delays, meaning you can stay home (or at your destination) a bit longer before heading to the airport
    • More importantly, you'll get notifications for predicted delays – for example, if the plane you're supposed to be taking takes off an hour late from its previous flight
  • Warnings about tight connections due to schedule changes or delays, allowing you to change your flights for a longer buffer
  • If something goes wrong, Flighty will help you quickly zero in on a list of potential alternative flights to help you rebook ASAP
  • Flighty even provides links to call, email, or message your airline in the app – not the fraudulent links you might see with a Google search
  • After you land, you'll get a push notification for where to collect your baggage – just in case you miss that overhead announcement

Here's an example of some basic push alerts you get on the day you fly.

A day before your flight departs, you'll get a “flight plan filed” alert about your upcoming trip, which automatically loads most of the details on the app. You also get a two-hour warning on the day of departure with some terminal and gate information.

 

Push alerts from the Flighty app with a black airplane logo on the left and the relevant information in the alert on a smartphone.

 

But there's much more information available. In addition to those basic updates, you can opt into all of these push alerts, including any and all delays, gate changes, aircraft changes, when your incoming plane arrives at the gate, what gate you'll be at when you arrive, and a 1-hour warning until landing, too.

 

Flighty Pro notifications setting page allowing you to add "The Basics," "Above and Beyond", "Flight Path", and "Arrival Information."

 

One of the newest features of Flighty Pro that is extremely valuable is the Connections Assistant feature, which analyzes your connecting itineraries to let you know if you'll have enough time to make it. 

For instance, this itinerary from Saint Kitts (SKB) to Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) had a connection in Miami (MIA) that Flighty thought could be risky. It labeled the connection “Tight.” 

 

Miami connection example on Flighty Pro's new connections assistant

 

While we made our flight just fine, thanks to Global Entry at the exceptionally annoying Miami customs area, the app correctly labeled the connection as tight. 

 

A tight connection explanation from Flighty Pro, with connecting times colored from red to green based on riskiness.

 

The app explains its methodology and adjusts it based on the airport and whether you're connecting domestically or internationally. For instance, I have a three-plus hour connection at Boston (BOS) coming up later this year that the app still deems risky!

This might be the most underrated aspect of Flighty and Flighty Pro: The app works on the basic, messaging Wi-Fi on planes. You know the normally free version of plane Wi-Fi that allows you to send text messages and WhatsApp messages while in the air? If you're connected to that, your Flighty app will partially update while you are in the sky.

Information is power when things go wrong in travel. And Flighty gives you more information – faster, too – than virtually any other app, service, or airline can.

 

Track Your Friends' Flights, Too

A feature I've been utilizing more lately is the Friends' Flights tracking feature. On a separate list from your own flights, you can monitor your loved ones' flights with all of the same Flighty data and notifications, too.

I've found this extremely helpful in a number of ways. I love to use it when I have to pick up my friends and family from the airport, as it gives me a countdown until landing and their flight status through push alerts as they go. I've also used it to track friends and family who are flying to the same destination as I am from other places or on other flights. It helps keep a traveling group together and informed.

 

Friend's flights denoted in a list below a map showing the flight flying across the U.S. on a blue line.

 

You can easily add other Flighty users to your list of friends: Any flights they've loaded into their own app will automatically show up in your, broken out from person to person. Otherwise, you can manually add a flight for a friend who isn't using a Flighty and start getting notifications.

This is incredibly helpful if you're trying to coordinate an airport pickup. Flighty recently took that to the next level by integrating with Apple CarPlay.

Plus, the “Friends' Flights” feature doesn't affect your own flying stats, either. These flights are automatically deleted from your app after the flight lands. 

 

Check Your Travel History

The power of Flighty extends far beyond your travel day.

First, Flighty Pro keeps track of all my travel data, including flights I took many years before the Flighty app even launched. When I connected my TripIt account to Flighty, it pulled in all the flights I had taken since I started using TripIt in 2011. Instantly, I had 14 years of flight data at my fingertips and a fully formed map of dots and lines to prove it.

All your past flights go into a section of the app called “My Flight Log.” They're listed chronologically, but every flight is displayed on the map.

 

A map shows hundreds of flight dots and lines followed by a back flight log below with dates and destinations.

 

You get helpful data like this when you select one of your past flights, for example my SWISS economy flight from New York (JFK) to Geneva (GVA). These screenshots were taken after the flight, so the app has fully fleshed out all of this data. At the top, you see the flight map, including the exact route we took, the date, the flag of the carrier, and the flight number.

 

JFK to Geneva flight map and information from the Flighty App

 

The green text means my flight was on time or early! We (impossibly) departed New York City early at 7:38 p.m. on a Thursday night and landed 16 minutes early in Geneva, too. 

If you scroll below that primary information, you get more. It starts with your confirmation code, which you can easily copy if you're checking in for your flight. Plus, you can put in your own seat information (it copies over from some reservations and not from others) so you can put away your airline's app after you scan your boarding pass.

 

Flight information in the Flighty App showing information about a flight from JFK to Geneva, Switzerland.

 

One of my favorite app features is the “Arrival Forecast,” which shows how often the plane arrives early, on time, late, or not at all. This SWISS flight, from a sample size of 59 flights, arrives early more than half of the time, which was reassuring.

Below the arrival forecasts, you'll find details of the plane itself. The “Where's My Plane?” section is really important and is usually the most indicative of whether or not you have delays.

 

All of the information about the aircraft operating a flight between New York and Geneva.

 

There's also specific tail number information about your plane, including fun and interesting facts like the plane's age and first flight. This can help you figure out what kind of seat or cabin you'll find onboard and can help you track a plane's history if you want to nerd out even more. A few times in the last year, Flighty has told me it was my second time on a specific airplane – showing me when and where I'd flown the exact plane before. 

Below that is the “Detailed Timeline” section, which gets you up-to-the-minute information about your journey. For instance, at JFK on a Thursday night right before the New Year's holiday, I knew we were due for a long time on the tarmac. Before takeoff, we were “scheduled” for 10 minutes on the tarmac, but Flighty budgeted us for about 25 minutes. Flighty's estimate was much closer to the end result, as you can see in the “Taxi” section below.

 

Detailed timeline section of the Flighty App, showing the scheduled and actual times of things like Gate Departure, taxi time, takeoff, landing, air time, and more.

 

Finally, at the bottom of the app, Flighty aggregates SWISS's phone number, website, and social media accounts so you can get in touch with the airline with one touch if things go awry.

Below that, you get a history of your own travels on the route you're flying, too. Being this was my first time on that specific line, it just showed my completed flight.

 

Route history, updates, and SWISS Airlines' contact information right in the Flighty App.

 

Flighty is also available via a desktop app for Mac, which I use when I'm working at 30,000 feet or when I have my laptop out at the airport or lounge before my flight.

 

A flight log on the desktop version of the Flighty app.

 

The Flighty app is beautifully designed and easy to use for any flyer.

 

A Few of My Other Favorite Features of Flighty Pro

I've spent a shocking amount of time on this app and have dug up some of my favorite ancillary features.

The first is having Flighty data on the lock screen of my iPhone. As part of an iPhone iOS update a few years ago, you can add widgets to your home screen, and the new interface launched with Flighty as a primary option.

I whipped up this phone screen to show the possibilities. Underneath the time is the longer, horizontal Flighty widget and the small, circular one to its right (the one on the far right is just the weather).

 

A lock screen with the date, time, and two different Flighty Pro widgets detailing a flight to Paris in 13 days.

 

I love having a countdown to my next flight on my lock screen. Having these on the lock screen is also nice because, on the day you fly, it'll show you gate information, on-time information, and once you land, baggage carousel information.

I also love having a Flighty app widget on my home screen. I have Flighty as a big button on the top left of my screen, along with all of my favorite apps.

 

A screenshot of the lock screen showing a flight to Paris in 13 days on Delta in the top left corner of a page full of apps.

 

Another feature I love is the Flighty Passport year-end roundup, plus the ability to see my all-time flight stats. You've likely seen Spotify Wrapped or other year-in-review-type content on people's social media, and Flighty does the same thing with Passport.

 

A look at the Flighty Passport feature, showing off annual flying statistics with flags showing the countries flown to, dots and lines detailing the flights, all set against a big pink and purple map of the world.

 

It gives you a map of all your flights for the year, the number of flights, distance, flight time, airports, and different airlines you flew. It was a fun snapshot into a year in the skies, although it was slightly terrifying to see that I spent a full week in the air in 2022.

 

Two Cons of Flighty

I know this review has been a love fest, but I have one gripe with the Flighty app. 

Airlines make schedule changes all the time, often resulting in you getting placed on a different “flight number” … even if that flight is departing at the exact same time. When your flight number changes, the Flighty app processes the change as a cancellation of your flight, giving you the big, scary, red “Flight is canceled” banner on the app.

 

Flight cancellation bug on the the Flighty Pro App. Big red banners and crossed out travel times show a cancelled flight.

 

Check your inbox that day or the following day, and you'll likely see an email from your airline that your flight is still operating but may have changed slightly. These notifications can be a bit of a jump scare.

Finally, a word to you Android users: I'm sorry, but there's no Flighty for Android yet. And by the sounds of it, it's not happening anytime soon … if ever. 

“I don't know the answer, to be honest,” Ryan Jones, the app's CEO, told us this summer. “The cold, unfortunate truth for those users is there are still more people on iOS that we haven't reached and that are willing to pay more premium prices than are on Android.”

“It's something we pay close attention to,” he added. 

 

Bottom Line

The Flighty app – with a Flighty Pro subscription – is my single favorite travel tool. In my mind, it's absolutely the single-most valuable resource to have in your pocket on the day you fly.

Flighty Pro subscriptions get you up-to-the-second push alerts and can help you see all the data you could possibly want about your upcoming or previous travels, all in one app.