Google is more up to date on delays than Qantas App/Airport Displays

aikman

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Sep 19, 2009
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I am sitting in a Qantas lounge and Google is showing my flight as delayed by 30 minutes which makes sense as the inbound flight is delayed.

However, the Qantas app, the monitor displays in the lounge and the airport website are all still showing the original departure time with no indication of a delay.

Why is it that Google has more up to date and accurate information compared to the airline and the airport?
 
Why is it that Google has more up to date and accurate information compared to the airline and the airport?

There have been a variety of reasons posted here in the past, but its not just Google. TripIt frequently alerts me to flight delays and gate changes well before airport monitors. I guess they all take their feed from the same source(s), but update their own displays/apps in different time frames.
 
A similar example happened to me: Last year on holiday i get a text from the 28degrees mastercard flight delay service, at 4am saying "sorry that your flight is delayed, here's the details for your free lounge passes".
I check the JQ website and airport websites - no delay mentioned. But i can see via flightradar that the inbound plane is very late.
Then 6 hours later (!) I get notification from JQ that the flight is delayed. So yeah i guess some systems/companies decide to send out notifications quicker than others.
 
I used to find that the MyCWT app for corporate travel was always ahead of QF and VA etc I’ve moved on from the corp travel world but I’m finding TripCase is working well on my current travels (alerting to Gate changes, delays etc). Even though it seems to work best with Sabre bookings (eg VA seat maps), it’s doing well so far with QF and AS (and completely free).
 
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11-12 years ago we had a project in Brisbane for about 2 years, I’m in Sydney.
A workmate who was living up there Mon-Fri and returning on weekends fairly-quickly found a taxi driver who didn’t make him fear for his life, and who he could pre-book to be picked-up on a Friday evening at Sydney airport.
Anyhoo, this workmate had ‘phone calls more than once from said driver, letting him know not to stress ‘cos the driver was aware the flight was delayed for an hour & he’d be at the airport an hour late … and the call was over 10 minutes before the boards in the lounge at BNE stated there was a delay.
 
From memory when doing a few flights with QF at the end of last year, the flightboard on the QF website (where you put in a location and pick arrivals or departures) was much quicker at being aware of changes than the app or flightboards in the lounges.
 
From memory when doing a few flights with QF at the end of last year, the flightboard on the QF website (where you put in a location and pick arrivals or departures) was much quicker at being aware of changes than the app or flightboards in the lounges.
I think the flight status info on the website is the same as the app?
 
Who knows

Try Flightradar24 as well.
If your flight depends on an inbound, you can often see where the inbound is.
This is true but sometimes equipment swaps can result in you tracking an aircraft that was previously scheduled to operate your sector. I've had flight radar tell me there's a delay due to my inbound aircraft being late when I'm already boarding my flight on time. Ideally there'd be one source of truth between what's communicated on departure boards at the airport and what is shared with these apps as there's frequently inconsistency in my experience.
 
I am sitting in a Qantas lounge and Google is showing my flight as delayed by 30 minutes which makes sense as the inbound flight is delayed.

However, the Qantas app, the monitor displays in the lounge and the airport website are all still showing the original departure time with no indication of a delay.

Why is it that Google has more up to date and accurate information compared to the airline and the airport?
Discovered that tip to check other sources flying CBR - MEL last year, helped us get "flow forward" as we arrived early at the airport.
We were on the Tulla freeway by the time delayed flight was departing CBR!
 
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