OK, so your best friend, family member, or that celebrity you have been stalking are on a flight and you want to know exactly where they are. How do you do that? Well, there are several services available on the interwebs that will allow you track the flight in real time.
Flytecomm.com.
Flytecomm the least featured of the services, but it is fast and simple. There is no signup required for this site. In fact, I didn’t even see the option to signup.
FlightAware.com
Is my favorite of these sites in that the main screen is clean and easy to navigate, unlike Flytecomm which has banner ads and other distractions on the main page. Also, even without signing up at the site you are able to see up to 14 days of flight history, airport info and diagrams, and you can use the site as much as you want. Should you want more features, registration is free and is a simple one page form. Below is a comparison of what you get as a registered/non-registered user:
| Service | Guest User | Registered Member |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free |
| Unlimited Live Flight Status And Tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Mapping, Route Analysis, Graphing | Yes | Yes |
| Airport Info, Diagrams, Terminal Procedures | Yes | Yes |
| Historical Flight Data | 14 days | 4 months |
| Auto-refresh and update on tracking pages | – | Yes |
| Flights Per Page (On Multi-Flight Views) | 20 | 40 |
| Time Zone and Locality Display Preferences | – | Yes |
| My FlightAware: My Aircraft/My Airports | – | Yes: 5/3 |
| Flight Status Alerts (e-mail, AIM, Jabber) | – | Yes |
| Flight No tes/Remarks |
– | Yes |
| Flight Crew Groups/Community | – | Yes |
| Photo Uploads and Storage | – | Yes/Unlimited |
| Aviation News & Photo email newsletter | – | Daily, Weekly, or Monthly |
| Posting Access To Public Discussions | – | Yes |
| Unpublished “Member Since Date” Benefits | – | Yes |
| Kitchen Sink | – | – |
FlightView.com
Flight View is another site that does not require, or even offer, registration for the service. It offers a simple interface and fast results. Flight View does not offer flight history or other details with its results, however, they do have apps for iPhone, Blackberry, and Palm so you can track your flight on the go.
While there are other sites and services that will allow you to track your flight in real time, I found these sites to be fastest, simplest, and friendliest sites.
Have another site for flight tracking that you prefer, let me know in the comments.
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