FlightTrack Pro

Chrisa | Mar 2, 2009 Travel, Utilities, Weather

User rating: (3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
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So – I know the burning question in your mind, fair reader, is where the hell has Chrisa been??  Well, as it turns out, I was traveling.  I travel quite a bit for work (shameless plug – www.sceneexchange.com), but I also got in a leisure trip – I went to the Academy Awards.  Before you ask how I got my no-name behind into the Oscars and get this post COMPLETELY off track, let me just say, if you really want to know, leave me a comment, and I’ll fill you in on all the details.  Oh – and yes, Brad and Angelina ARE that gorgeous in person, thanks for asking.

Being that I travel so much, I thought I’d try out FlightTrack Pro.  I’ve tried a few of the cheap (read: free) flight tracking apps, so I really wanted to see what $9.99 would buy me.  I am notoriously cheap, so I really expected a crapload of features for this kind of price tag.  FlightTrack Pro delivers….99%. 

How does it deliver?  It’s really easy to track your travel.  This version of the app is integrated with TripIt, an extremely handy and free feature where you email your itinerary to TripIt, and your flights automatically show up and are tracked in FlightTrack Pro.  By far, the coolest feature there is.  When I book a flight, all the airline websites let me email a copy to a bunch of addresses – I just type in the TripIt address, and it shows up in the app.  There’s also integrated weather for your destination(s), email itineraries directly from the application, and it supports both domestic and international flights.  Very, very, cool.   It even has a fun feature where, if you’re super bored or not traveling this week, you can shake your iPhone and get a random flight.

But, even this cool of an app has a drawback.  There’s a nice feature that lets you see a map of exactly where a flight is in the air, but unless you’re on one of the very few airlines that has Wi-Fi in route, you can’t see any maps.   Seems a bit pointless, unless you’re an administrative assistant or secretary.  And, since my admin assistant is a thumbless canine (I’ll wait while you process that………), not that useful for her.  But, honestly, that’s the only drawback – if you want to call it that – that this application has.  

If you travel a lot, go and get this application now.  Seriously – stop reading this post and download it.  Now.  If I’m telling you it’s worth ten bucks, trust me, it really is.  If you aren’t a road warrior, there is a lighter version, FlightTrack, for $4.99.  Not as feature rich, of course, but worth it if you travel a few times a year.

My flight, easy to read.
My flight, easy to read.
The only thing it couldn't tell me was that my bag went to SFO.
The only thing it couldn't tell me was that my bag went to SFO.

If my flight had wi-fi, this is what I would have seen.
If my flight had wi-fi, this is what I would have seen.
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  • http://www.coachinglife.ca Tim Stringer

    Thanks for the great review!

    I purchased FlightTrack a while back and have been very happy with the application. I hadn’t even heard of FlightTrack Pro before reading your post and had never used TripIt before. I’m just purchased the Pro version and have signed up for a TripIt account and am sure this will make my upcoming travels much easier to manage.

    And, I am more than a little curious to know how you scored an invitation to the Oscars. Meet anyone from Slumdog Millionaire? I loved that movie.

  • Chrisa

    Ah Tim…I knew someone would ask! And I’m happy to tell!

    I didn’t get to go to the ceremony, unfortunately, but every year, the Academy raffles off 300 seats on the bleachers along the Red Carpet to fans. Every year, about 25,000 people enter, and this year, I won. So I sat on the bleachers and took FABULOUS photos of the stars, which you can see on my flickr account (www.chrisahickey.com links to it). I did get to talk to Queen Latifah, and she was very cool. Most just waved and said hi.

    I could tell you how to find out about the raffle, but then I’d have to kill you…

  • http://www.coachinglife.ca Tim Stringer

    Great photos Christa – I think they should hire you as the official photographer next year! Very cool that you had a chat with Queen Latifah.

  • unregistered

    Now I have been trying out some for for free (triptracker – which I like because it lets me add hotels, but it wouldn’t sync my US Airways account), but one thing I don’t understand: me personally I don’t need to see where in the world I am when I am on the plane, what I would be more interested in would be an app that would show where the incoming flight to my outgoing trip is at the moment), i.e. how late is it really going to be now that would be a nice feature don’t you think?