How Do I Find an Old Flight?

FlightAware General
1

I’m looking up United 908 from DEN to ORD. But I see that for June, only the ORD - AMS leg is listed now. I flew on the DEN-ORD leg and I downloaded the tracking map a few days later so I know that flightaware did cover it. But now I wanted to look it up again. All of the DEN-ORD legs are gone.

So I see the direct URL for a flight page and I tried to type in the info but it does not come up. I think I need the time it is scheduled? It says on my ticket departs at 12:34pm. So I typed in flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL9 … /KDEN/KORD Is that the correct format? Nothing comes up. If my ticket says 12:34 then is that the scheduled time that flightaware would use? How else can I find the scheduled time for a past flight?

2

United is notorious for giving different flight numbers to one flight.

UAL938 operated on 30 Sep from DEN to ORD to LHR. The flight number given to ATC for the DEN to ORD segment was 938T while the ORD to LHR flight operated as 938.
flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL9 … /KDEN/KORD
flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL9 … /KORD/EGLL

As indicated in the questions/answers (see link, top right, every page in FlightAware) the time shown is NOT gate time as indicated on the ticket but the wheels-up time.

3

Left a little late I see:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL908/history/20090630/1848Z/KDEN/KORD

A benefit of being a paid subscriber:)

4

Which one is it? :slight_smile:

5

[quote=“QuickBurn”]

[quote=“AV8NLVR”]
I’m looking up United 908[/quote]

from DEN to ORD…

I was giving an example.

6

I am interested in 908. I looked up the wheels up time on the BTS website and it is listed as 12:51. I’m guessing that is local - Denver time. So I tried the flightaware URL using 1751z as the time, also tried 1851z, and it still doesn’t come up.

7

Why not just click on the link posted befo… oh nevermind here it is.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL908/history/20090630/1848Z/KDEN/KORD

8

…because that is June 30. I want June 9.

9

That would have been great information to include in your first post!!

10

flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL9 … /KDEN/KORD is your flight.

I looked at the current flights from DEN to ORD to see what other letters are suffixed to UAL flight numbers. I found 908"J" so it was just a matter of clicking on that flight to get its history.

I could have also gone through the alphabet from A to Z until I found the right number but that would have taken too long.

11

But how did you know the time to put in was 18:49z? Is there someplace that lists the correct wheels-up time? The bureau of transportation website was 3 minutes off. So do you go by that number and just keep trying numbers on either side till you get it?

Bruce

12

I didn’t put in the time.

  1. Determine the letter suffix to use for the flight.
  2. Enter the flight number into the flight/tail# box
  3. Click enter
  4. Click on more flights
  5. scroll down until you get to the flight in question

In other words, I didn’t use the data in BTS. There will be differences between what BTS shows and what the FAA shows.

13

Ohhhhhhh…now I get it! 908 was actually known in the system as 908J! Why does United do that? I have occasionally seen a Northwest flight with a letter and never knew what that meant.

Bruce

14

The time in the URL is the scheduled departure time, not the actual departure time (otherwise links wouldn’t work before the flight departs).

There are several other threads that cover United’s use of alpha characters.