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1-800-Flights Flight Departure and Arrival Information

1-800-Flights1-800-Flights is a company determined to provide you with toll-free phone access to flight status for nearly every commercial passenger flight arriving and departing the U.S. daily. Pretty handy if you don’t have internet access on your phone (and you don’t want to pay the outrageous $12 or so to log on at the terminal for just a few minutes).

The company is aiming to provide travelers with fast, convenient access to continuously updated flight status information by phone, using voice-recognition technology. Sounds great. Especially if you’re rushing to the airport (running late as usual) and you want to know if you’re going to make the flight. Not that I’ve ever been guilty of that.

1-800 flights will provide service for 141 airlines, both domestic and international. That gives them a range of 432 U.S. commercial airports and 173 international airports. I didn’t even know there were that many airports in the country.

When you place a call, you will be rewarded with flight status, terminal and gate information. How do they keep it free? The ole’ fashioned American way. Advertising. A message plays between your request and receiving the information. Not a bad price to pay for free information.

“The idea behind 1-800-Flights is to offer U.S. air travelers a simpler, more convenient way to check flight status while offering advertisers a one-to-one opportunity to reach these affluent, educated consumers,” said Sam Stolbun, president of 1-800-Flights.

Why would you want to do this rather than just call the number provided by your specific airline? The company maintains it offers an advantage because it is more comprehensive. “For example, flights marketed by the major airlines are often operated by another carrier under code sharing arrangements. 1-800-Flights will have the latest status on the operating carrier flight while the marketing airline may not.” I can’t imagine an airline NOT having the information on a codeshare flight, but I guess it’s possible.

If you’re an internet junkie, 1-800-Flights also provides flight status information at www.1800flights.net.