The Easiest Way to Share Flight Info with Friends & Family

There are plenty of great apps and sites for tracking flights (Flighty Pro is one of our favorites), but not everyone uses them or wants to download more. So long as you’ve got an iPhone, there’s a simple way to share your flight and let friends or family members keep tabs on your trip – or vice versa.

Just send it to them in a text message. Yes, that’s it: Send your flight number via text, and your loved one will able to quickly pull up your flight details with just a click, seeing whether your flight is en route, on-time, or delayed. No more screenshots or emails – and no third-party app required.
 

When an iPhone user receives a text with a flight number, they’ll see a line beneath it showing it’s clickable. Click, then simply select “Preview flight” and you’ll instantly see a live map of the flight’s route, current status, scheduled arrival time, gate and terminal, and even baggage claim information.
 

It should work as long as you include the full flight number including the airline code – for example, “DL1393.” Typing the airline name before the number – like “Delta DL1393” – may also help, too.

And it works even if the other person is an Android user … but it’s a one-way street. Android users can share their flight information with iPhone users, but they cannot click a flight number sent from an iPhone user. As of publication, Android’s operating system hasn’t rolled out a similar onscreen function.

But for the Apple crowd, this feature also works on iPhones, iPads, and even Macbooks. You can simply pull down on the home screen and type the flight number into the search bar.
 

Click on the card at the top of the screen and you’ll see the same live flight data as the one you received in the Messages app.
 

You can track flights from your Mac, too. If you’ve enabled iMessage on your Mac, you’ll have the same option to see a preview of the flight data by clicking the flight number. Otherwise, hit command and the spacebar to pull up the Spotlight Search function. Then, just type in the flight number.
 

Click on the correct flight to see the flight data.
 

To be clear, none of this is brand new. Apple rolled this out last year as part of its latest iOS and MacOS upgrades. Travelers have been using it ever since, and it’s lit up social media as a clever travel hack.

Yet it remains a little-known feature – and one that can certainly come in handy the next time you’re tracking your own flight, coordinating a group trip, or picking up a pal from the airport.

Bottom Line

Have an iPhone? There’s a cool, relatively new feature that can make your next trip or airport pickup a little smoother.

No need to download yet another app: If a friend or family member texts you their flight number, you can pull up their latest flight details within a single click to see whether their flight is on time, when it’s arriving, and more.