I’ll admit it – I’m a flight stalker. If a friend or family member is taking a trip, I’ll occasionally look up their flight and follow it online. Even if you don’t know their flight number or airline, if you know when they’re leaving and where they’re going it’s pretty easy to narrow down which flight they’re taking.
It started when I had to help some friends when their flights had mechanical problems or flight delays and they were wondering if they would still make their connecting flights. Since I’m at home at a computer, it’s easier for me to help by checking flight schedules and tracking other flights. However, it’s getting to the point where even I think I’m getting a little obsessive.
For example, my dad and his wife were heading out for their trip which includes the best award flight I ever booked.
I was up early so I checked in on their positioning flight.
Using the Flightaware website, I was able to follow the flight right from the point it pulled away from the gate.
Since I already had the flight pulled up, I decided to look up the plane they were flying on. It’s not hard once you have the flight number. Just go to FlightRadar24 and plug in the information.
They were flying on an Alaska plane N461AS. Here’s a picture of the plane.
Some more Googling brought me to Airfleets.net where I found out that this Alaska 737-900ER is 4.6 years old.
At this point, I knew way more about the plane than my dad did and he was already sitting on it, preparing for takeoff.
By this time, I was heading for work. I made sure to keep up the flight progress on the FlightAware app until I saw it touch down in Seattle.
I have no excuse. I can only say that I look these things up because I love to travel. I love when other people travel. I’m excited for anyone who gets to go and see something new or different (or something old and familiar). Doesn’t really matter to me, as long as you’re going somewhere.
Just know if we’re friends and you post on Facebook about how you’re flying from X-Y today, I might be following your flight online. Not in a creepy way. Promise.
(Note from Sharon: Joe, I love you but that’s…weird 😉)
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
