Flight Status Monitoring & Tracking

You shouldn't have to manually check every flight on the day of travel. JourneyFuse tracks your clients' upcoming flights automatically and alerts you — and optionally your clients — the moment something changes. Delays, cancellations, diversions, gate changes — you'll know before your client does.

Already on by default. Flight tracking runs automatically on every trip — there's nothing to turn on. The one thing it needs is the flight on your day-by-day itinerary with a flight number (see How a Flight Gets Tracked below).

How a Flight Gets Tracked

Tracking starts the moment a flight is on a trip's day-by-day itinerary with a flight number filled in. Two things to know:

• It has to be on the itinerary, not just the proposal or flight builder. A flight that only lives in a proposal, a quote, or your flight search hasn't been added to the itinerary yet, so there's nothing to track. Add it as a flight block on the itinerary day and it's covered.
• Draft itineraries are tracked too. You do not need to publish the itinerary for tracking to run. A flight on a draft itinerary is watched exactly the same as one on a published itinerary. Publishing only controls what your client can see in their portal — it has no effect on monitoring.

That's it. There's no separate switch to enable. As long as the flight number is on the itinerary block and the trip is within the monitoring window (about a week out through arrival), it's being checked.

What Gets Monitored

Any flight block in an itinerary with a flight number is eligible for monitoring. JourneyFuse checks flights on a smart schedule:

Time to Departure	Check Frequency
3–7 days out	Every 6 hours
1–3 days out	Every 2 hours
Same day (6+ hours out)	Hourly
Same day (within 6 hours)	Every 30 minutes

Once a flight has landed or is cancelled, monitoring stops automatically — no wasted checks.

How It Works

When JourneyFuse detects a change, it:

1. Updates the itinerary — the flight card immediately reflects the live status. If a flight is delayed, the original departure time appears struck through with the new estimated time shown in amber. Cancelled flights show a "Cancelled" banner directly on the flight card.

2. Shows a live status badge — agents and clients both see a real-time badge (Scheduled, In Flight, Landed, Delayed, Cancelled) next to the flight number.

3. Sends an in-app notification — appears in your Inbox so you can take action without leaving JourneyFuse.

4. Sends alert emails — you receive an email with the full details and actionable guidance. If the trip has a linked client with an email address, they receive a client-friendly version with your contact info so they know who to reach.

Alert Thresholds

Not every minor hiccup generates an alert. JourneyFuse uses three severity tiers:

Severity	Trigger	Color
Warning	Delay 30–60 minutes	Yellow
Major	Delay 60–120 minutes	Orange
Critical	Delay 120+ minutes, cancellation, or diversion	Red

Alerts escalate — if a warning-level delay grows to major, you get a second alert. If the situation resolves, no further alerts are sent.

Connection Alerts

If a trip has two or more flights on the same day (a connecting itinerary), JourneyFuse checks whether a delay on the first leg puts the connection at risk. If the effective arrival time leaves fewer than 45 minutes to board the next flight, you'll receive a "Connection at Risk" alert — and a "Missed Connection" alert if the math says the client can't make it.

Ground connections, too

Connection alerts aren't just flight-to-flight. If a delayed flight lands the same day as a booked transfer pickup, tour or excursion, activity, or dining reservation, JourneyFuse checks whether the late arrival still leaves enough time to make it — and sends a "Connection at Risk" alert if it doesn't. This is exactly the case where a delayed flight would otherwise cause a client to miss a pre-arranged airport pickup or shuttle.

These ground-connection alerts fire even when the delay itself is under the 30-minute threshold for a standard delay alert, because a short delay can still break a tight connection. The buffer JourneyFuse expects between landing and the booked start varies by what's next (more for a tour you have to travel to, less for a dinner reservation).

Connection alerts appear both as in-app notifications and in the activity log on the trip, so you have a full record of what happened and when.

What You See in the Itinerary

The flight card shows live information automatically — no refresh needed:

• Delayed departure: original time (9:00 AM) → actual time in amber (11:15 AM +135m)
• Delayed arrival: same treatment for the arrival side
• Gate/terminal changes: the card shows the live gate and terminal from the airline, updating automatically if they change
• Cancelled: a red "Cancelled" banner overlays the route card

This same live view appears in the client portal — your clients see the current status whenever they open their trip.

Activity Log

Every flight alert is recorded in the trip's activity log with:

• Which flight triggered the alert
• The exact delay or status at time of alert
• Whether it was a disruption alert or a connection-at-risk alert

This gives you a clear timeline if you ever need to document what happened for a travel insurance claim or supplier dispute.

Setting Up Flight Monitoring

Flight monitoring is automatic once your account is configured with the AeroDataBox API key. If you're not seeing flight status badges or receiving alerts, contact support to verify your account's flight monitoring is enabled.

Note: Flight numbers must be entered in the itinerary block for monitoring to activate. The standard IATA format works best — for example, UA1234 or DL 456.

Troubleshooting: I Didn't Get an Alert

If a flight was delayed or cancelled and you never heard about it, run through this checklist before assuming the feature is off:

• Is the flight on the day-by-day itinerary? This is the most common cause. A flight that only lives in a proposal, a quote, or the flight search is not tracked. It has to be a flight block on the itinerary, with a flight number. See How a Flight Gets Tracked.
• Draft vs. published is not the reason. Drafts are tracked exactly the same as published itineraries. If your itinerary was in draft, that did not stop monitoring — check the flight block itself instead.
• Is the flight number filled in and in the right format? No flight number means nothing to look up. Use IATA format like UA1234 or DL 456.
• Was the delay under 30 minutes? Minor delays don't trigger an alert. Alerts start at a 30-minute delay (plus any cancellation or diversion at any time).
• Was the flight inside the monitoring window? Tracking covers roughly a week out through arrival. A flight further out than that hasn't started being checked yet.
• Check the trip's activity log. Every alert is recorded there even if an email didn't reach your inbox. If the activity log shows the alert but the email didn't arrive, it's a delivery issue (check spam) rather than a tracking issue.

If you've confirmed all of the above and still aren't seeing alerts on a flight that should be tracked, contact support with the trip and flight number so we can take a look.