Is my plane a 737 MAX?

Re:Is my plane a 737 MAX? by joekrill on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @12:41PM (#38929130)

This doesn't seem correct. I checked a few flights I have coming up and it identified a United flight as not being a MAX, when United itself tells me it is. And it identifies a Southwest flight as being a MAX when it isn't.

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Re:Is my plane a 737 MAX? by therealfiona on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @03:00PM (#38931192)

Planes get changed, especially if the flight is far out.

If not enough people buy a ticket for a 737-8 sized plane, SWA will sometimes swap it out with a 737-700 with a smaller capacity. This also allows SWA to fly with one less flight attendant than they would on the larger plane.

If there is a maintenance issue with your 737-Max8, and there is a 737-800 sitting in the next gate not set to go out until a few hours after your plane, they'll swap it out to reduce the chance of having a late departure.

If the site is not scraping data every minute, there could be mismatches. It's unlikely this site is scraping data more than once a day to save costs.

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Re:Is my plane a 737 MAX? by jacksoncheek on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @01:01PM (#38929471)

Yeah, the data source is imperfect. The flight information pulls the "nearest" (live, scheduled or landed) flight that matches that flight number, to give you a sense of the aircraft on that route.

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Re:Is my plane a 737 MAX? by JoshTko on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @01:04PM (#38929523)

Seems like a fatal flaw in the product where precision is the most important aspect.

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Re:Is my plane a 737 MAX? by madeofpalk on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @01:43PM (#38930112)

It’s next to impossible to actually answer this precisely at any time 3 hours before departure for airlines that fly both Airbus and Boeing.

There will be specific planes scheduled for the flight in advanced, but it changes frequently up until departure due to regular airline logistics.

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Re:Is my plane a 737 MAX? by aero142 on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @02:38PM (#38930850)

Adding a date of travel and checking the scheduled tail number would be much more accurate.

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Re:Is my plane a 737 MAX? by madeofpalk on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @03:11PM (#38931367)

Kind of. The 'scheduled tail number' will change multiple times in the days before a flight.

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Re:Is my plane a 737 MAX? by addandsubtract on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @01:56PM (#38930300)

Just like the 737 MAX then ;)

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Re:Is my plane a 737 MAX? by broadsidepicnic on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @02:31PM (#38930751)

Wait, what? There's no point in that.. Having flown nearly a decade its more common than not flying the same route with different tail than yesterday.

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Re:Is my plane a 737 MAX? by itslennysfault on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @01:50PM (#38930197)

Imperfect data?!?!! Well, someone isn't getting a coffee!

(just kidding. This is a cool project. Good job)

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Re:Is my plane a 737 MAX? by duxup on Tuesday January 09, 2024 @12:56PM (#38929382)

Is it possible that the planes were changed for a different one in light of the cancellations recently and … one or the other is wrong?

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