Flight Finding Made Easy

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.oag.com/jump/flightfinderpromo.asp?' target='_blank'>http://www.oag.com/jump/flightfinderpromo.asp?</a><br /><br /></div><i>"When you're travelling on important business, don't get caught without a full range of flight schedules available at your fingertips. OAG's new Flight-Finder software for PDA enables you to download ALL flights within your chosen geographical region. Or, if you prefer, download all flights within that region as well as to/from the rest of the world."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20041221-FlightFinder.gif" /><br /><br />OAG have just released Flight-Finder - a portable solution for downloading the latest flight schedules no matter which area of the world you live in. It allows you to check last-minute flight details, look up alternate flights, as well as gain access to airline reservation numbers. Like most software products, there is a trial version available. You can learn a little more about the product <a href="http://www.oag.com/jump/flightfinderpromo.asp?">here</a>.

[marcm]

That would be good for someone who travels a lot. Unfortunately, that isn't me... :cry: :wink:

[Kati Compton]

I do travel a lot, but 99 pounds is just too much money for me... :(

[OSUKid7]

Port Columbus International Airport (CMH) offers a free flight schedule program, (http://www.port-columbus.com/flight/flight/schedules.asp) available for Desktop [Windows] (http://www.trvlink.com/download/cmh/cmhdesktop.exe) and Pocket PC [ARM/X-Scale] (http://www.trvlink.com/download/cmh/cmharm.exe) [SH3] (http://www.trvlink.com/download/cmh/cmhsh3.exe) [MIPS] (http://www.trvlink.com/download/cmh/cmhmips.exe) (and Palm, but I'm too lazy to link to that. ;)). The flight schedules for CMH are also available online (http://www.innovata-llc.com/cmh/htmapcmh.asp) I'm not sure if other airports offer similar programs, but for free, that's quite a service. Not quite as nice of a UI as OAG Flight-Finder, but hey, it's free. ;)

[TMann]

Also, don't most of the airlines have an online listing for the status of their own flights? So if you're traveling out yourself, or picking someone up at the airport, I'm guessing that you could simply log onto that airlines website and get the needed information.

TMann

[OSUKid7]

Also, don't most of the airlines have an online listing for the status of their own flights? So if you're traveling out yourself, or picking someone up at the airport, I'm guessing that you could simply log onto that airlines website and get the needed information.Yeah, but those sites don't always display correctly on a Pocket PC, so a nice program UI is sometimes worth the price.

[Kati Compton]

Also, don't most of the airlines have an online listing for the status of their own flights? So if you're traveling out yourself, or picking someone up at the airport, I'm guessing that you could simply log onto that airlines website and get the needed information.
It could be useful if you're on a multi-leg journey and you're on a layover when they tell you your next flight is cancelled. Sometimes they do a good job of finding a way to get you where you need to go, but other times they might say "too bad, the next flight is in 6 hours" when in fact there's a flight on another airline in one hour that they *could* book you on. So if you can store that info on your PDA for the days that you're traveling, you have a better shot at forcing the issue.

[jimski]

Glad I travel on Continental 99% of the time. Nice, PPC friendly website and it's free :lol:[url=http://pda.continental.com/PocketPC/]

[whydidnt]

The price is definitely out of whack. You can get access to the same schedules via World Mate Pro for a $69.95 annual subscription. All of the major US airlines also offer Pocket PC Friendly flight schedule downloads for free. However, the only one I've managed to get working on my PDA2K is the American Airlines one. I get errors for both the United Star Alliance, and the NWA "Sky Team" software. I haven't had a chance to troubleshoot, but I'm thinking they should work....

[whydidnt]

Just to give an update on my previous post. It seems the 3 "major" airline alliances from American, United, and Delta-NWA all use the same program and database for their free PocketPC schedules. I can only access the most recent one on installed on my device. I tried installing one to Flash storage, and the second to a memory card, but still only the last installed worked.

Has anyone managed to get more than one of these installed and working on their device? I hate having to pay a premium for information that is freely available from the source, but that may be the price of convenience.

[Kati Compton]

Star Alliance appears to have PDF versions available... So at worst, you could have the American software and the United PDF.... Not sure about NWA.

[Jeff Rutledge]

I agree with previous posts that the price is quite high.

I travel a lot, but 95% of the time it's with one airline. Even so, I don't think this type of software would help me out. My trips are always planned at least a day or two in advance (sometimes weeks) and any changes are usually minor (one or two flights earlier / later).

I think software like this would benefit "high need" travelers, who need to go somewhere with little notice and whose itinerary changes often mid-stream. That's about it though.

[whydidnt]

Where this information is handy for me:

1. Canceled flight. It's useful to search for alternative flights.
2. Delayed Flight. Can another airline get me there sooner?
3. Find earlier flight. Often meetings wrap up early, it's convenient to see if an earlier flight is available, without having to call the airline and wait on hold to see if something else is leaving sooner.

I currently carry paper airline schedules to check this sort of thing, but it would sure be nice to have it all on my PPC instead.