I, like pretty much everyone else, have always hated flight delays. Since TJ came into the mix, however, I've progressed from hating flight delays to fearing even the thought of them. Because, while travel delays are no fun regardless of who you're traveling with, you take suffering to a whole new level when you have to entertain a young child in the airport or, even worse, while stuck on the tarmac. For these reasons, a while back I wrote about some strategies for avoiding airline delays. I even managed to put some of those strategies to good use in my own travels.
Now, I've recently discovered a new weapon to add to the on-time arsenal: Delaycast.com. Before
booking your tickets next time, log on to Delaycast and enter your departure and arrival airports, your departure date, and the hour of your departure time. Delaycast will then predict the chance of flights meeting those criteria departing on time, as well as how many minutes on average you can expect to be delayed, and the odds of your flight being outright canceled.
How do they do it? According to their website, Delaycast's "estimates are based on predictive modeling technologies that model historical patterns in flight delays and project them into the future." Delaycast concedes that "all predictions and profiles are produced by the models, and as such, are never 100% accurate. Nevertheless, the insight provided beyond the airlines' schedules will help most travelers avoid troubles." Music to my travel-planning ears.
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