I Asked Travel Experts How To Predict If Your Flight Will Be Delayed

I recently spoke to flight experts about which colour suitcase gets unloaded first, based on a TikTok I’d seen months before. 

I had it in my head that red suitcases got loaded into the back of the hold first ― but I learned that’s not true. They’re actually stacked by weight, check-in-time, and seat class instead.

But what about flights themselves? I wanted to know whether there was any way to tell if a plane is going to be delayed before the changes are officially announced. 

So, I reached back out to Georgia Fowkes, a travel advisor for Altezza Travel, to see what can be done before the panicked travel screen clusters begin. 

How can you tell if a flight’s going to be delayed before it’s announced?

“When you fly as often as I do, delays are bound to happen from time to time,” Georgia said. Small delays are annoying, but normal; for these, the expert brings a good book or listens to a podcast. 

Still, she says it’s “frustrating” that “airlines control how and when they communicate delays,” sometimes delaying much-awaited information. 

Three ways she calculates delay and cancellation risk are: 

1) Checking your inbound plane’s details

“One of the best ways to predict a delay is by checking the inbound flight — the flight your aircraft is coming from,” she says. 

She uses sites like FlightRadar to see her flight’s previous path.

“One useful trick is comparing the scheduled departure time with the actual departure time of the inbound flight,” she added. 

“If the previous flight left late, your flight will likely depart late as well.” 

2) Check the weather… of your plane’s previous airport

“The plane doesn’t just show up fresh for your flight. It has usually been flying all day,” Georgia told HuffPost UK. 

“So even if the weather at your departure airport is clear and perfect for flying, a storm at the plane’s previous destination or a busy connection hub could have already thrown off its schedule… icy, windy, rainy, or foggy conditions are the first yellow or red flags.” 

3) Keep an eye on how your plane’s flying

Some planes change the way they fly when they’re stalling, Georgia told us. 

So, if you’re tracking the aeroplane and notice “the plane is cruising, circling in a holding pattern, or beginning to descend,” it may run late, the expert told us. 

And obviously, “If the plane is still in the air when it should already have landed, your flight is probably not leaving on it.” 

Of course, none of these are foolproof. 

As Georgia says, though: “Flight delays are no fun. But at least if you see it coming, you know it’s time to hunt for a charging outlet before they’re all taken.”