A woman who used to work in the aviation industry has shared her favourite travel hack that she feels ‘nobody knows about’ and it will take you 10 seconds to do
Preparing for your summer holiday can be exciting, time-consuming and stressful in equal measure, but there’s one super-simple additional thing that you can do to ready yourself, according to a woman that worked in the aviation industry.
Darby Maloney, who goes by durbinmalonster on TikTok, shared her ‘number one hack’ to her 313k followers. She said: “The morning of your flight you’re going to text yourself your flight number okay?” In doing so, the number will become a link. If you click this and choose ‘preview flight’, you’ll see all the information for your flight, which is updated in real time.
This includes delay status, departure and arrival times, duration, and gate and baggage claim information. If the flight is active, you’ll also see a real-time tracking map.
Importantly, this works across apple devices, so make sure you use iMessage. You can ‘text yourself’ by starting a new message and messaging your own number.
Darby goes on to say: “The key is you have to include your airline code. So, for example, if I’m flying American Airlines flight 686 I’m gonna type AA686 – Delta’s gonna be DL, Alaska’s gonna be AS…”
If that configuration does not work, try the following:
- Airline + flight number: ‘Delta Airlines 405’
- Airline abbreviation + flight number: ‘DL 405’
- Airline abbreviation + flight number (no space): ‘DL405’
You’ll know your format is correct if the text is underlined (indicating a hyperlink) once the message has been sent.
Darby’s advice continues: “If someone’s picking you up, send it to them. If you’re Ubering, send it to yourself.”
The person giving you a ride will be able to stay updated too, says Darby, so much so that “whoever is picking you up can literally see a little airplane flying across the screen”.
She’s so confident about the flight tracking that she uses it every time she travels, saying: “It’s the greatest hack – I never look at the screens at the airport anymore.”
It’s especially useful if you have a connecting flight, says Darby, explaining: “Text yourself both flights. The second you land, you can just click your link and know exactly what your gate is.”
Comments from pleased followers ranged from “Why am I barely processing the fact you can text yourself [shocked emoji]”, to “Omg this is so much easier than flight tracker”.
One follower was a fan of the hack, but didn’t want to give up a favourite airport moment he has, saying: “I’ve been doing this for years and it’s great for sending to other ppl but I love having a *main character* moment starting at the flight departure boards.”
