FAQ

The questions we get the most.

Short answers, no fluff. For account, privacy, and how-to questions, see /help. Still stuck? Talk to a human.

Free vs Pro

What do I get on the Free plan?

Flight status when you open the app (gate, scheduled vs actual times, route, aircraft type, airline). Track up to five upcoming flights. Share Link so non-app friends can see status, gate, and ETA. Eligible accounts can start a 7-day Pro trial through the App Store or Google Play.

What's actually paywalled in Pro?

Push notifications. That's the headline. Free shows you current status in-app when you open it; Pro pushes consequential changes: gate move, delay, diversion, cancellation. Pro also unlocks live lock-screen updates and Dynamic Island, the EU261 / DOT compensation engine, a calm recovery plan when flights are cancelled or delayed, Apple Watch and Android widgets, Calm Mode for nervous flyers, and calendar export.

Why is push paywalled if Free shows live data?

Background push notifications need us to constantly poll FlightAware's commercial data feed for every Pro user. That's the real per-user cost of the app. Free users see fresh status on demand (when you open the app, we pull the latest record), so you get the truth either way. Push is the convenience layer.

Can I try Pro without committing?

Yes. Eligible accounts can start a 7-day Pro trial through the App Store or Google Play. The store shows renewal terms before you start, and you can manage or cancel through the store before renewal.

What does Pro cost?

Three ninety-nine per week, six ninety-nine per month, or forty-nine ninety-nine per year (saves about forty percent). Weekly, Monthly, and Annual all unlock Pro. There is no family subscription in V1; no-install share links are the V1 family-and-tracking surface.

How often we check your flights

How often does FlightFlow check on my flight?

Free: on demand, every time you open the app. We do not poll your flights in the background. Your battery and your data plan get a break. Pro: consequential changes reach you through FlightAware's push-alert feed, so a gate move, delay, diversion, or cancellation reaches your phone as soon as FlightAware reports it. Your flight data also refreshes on a schedule that tightens as you get closer: a couple of hours apart a day out, down to every few minutes around departure and landing. After landing, updates stop.

How do Pro alerts compare with airline alerts?

Pro is designed to watch source flight data and push consequential changes instead of every minor wobble. It can surface some changes before an airline notification, but the promise is clear, timely, actionable alerts rather than a guaranteed race.

Why not refresh every single minute?

FlightAware bills per query and our hard rule is sustainable Pro economics. Push alerts already deliver the changes that matter the moment FlightAware reports them, so blanket minute-by-minute polling would add cost without adding signal. A tight but sensible refresh cadence in the critical window keeps Pro sustainable without burning your subscription on redundant checks.

Can I force a refresh?

Yes. Pull down on the flight card to fetch the latest status immediately. This is free on Free and unlimited on Pro. We never throttle a manual refresh.

Where the data comes from

Where does FlightFlow get flight data?

FlightAware AeroAPI is our single source for flight status and schedules. Airport reference data is bundled in the app from OurAirports, and weather context comes from NOAA's Aviation Weather Center. We do not sell or broker the flights you track.

How accurate is the gate information?

Gate info comes from schedule and status feeds via FlightAware. It updates when the source feed updates, but smaller airports and regional carriers can lag. When in doubt, the airport monitors are still the canonical source minutes before boarding.

How accurate is the share-link page?

The share-link page shows the current status, gate, ETA, and lifecycle information available in our flight record. Live aircraft-map streaming is not claimed on the web share link until the position feed is wired into that surface.

Does FlightFlow work for international flights?

Yes. FlightAware has broad global coverage including European, Asian, South American, and African carriers, with reliable actual times even for many regional carriers. Oceanic and polar flights can still have sparse live-position coverage, so we label stale or inferred positions clearly.

What happens when position coverage is sparse?

We fall back to the last reported status plus the planned route, displayed with a 'last seen' timestamp where position is available. The map plane icon dims so you can see at a glance that the position is inferred, not live. As soon as fresh position data reaches the app, tracking resumes.

How we compare

How is FlightFlow different from Flighty?

Same broad data spine: both use FlightAware. Flighty is an established shipping product; FlightFlow is built around a no-install share link, free dark mode, and Calm Mode for nervous flyers. We are not shipping a V1 family subscription.

How is FlightFlow different from Flightradar24?

FlightRadar24 is a live-radar product first, with a flight-tracking subscription bolted on. We are a personal flight tracker first, with a radar map included. If you want to watch random planes overhead, FR24 is great. If you are travelling and want clear alerts, recovery guidance, and compensation evidence around your own trip, FlightFlow is purpose-built for that.

How is FlightFlow different from the airline app?

The airline app remains the source for boarding passes, seats, baggage, and rebooking. FlightFlow focuses on flight status, share links, alerts, and recovery context. We also do not advertise upgrades, sell trip insurance, or hide status behind marketing screens.

Should I keep the airline app installed?

Yes. Use the airline app for boarding pass, baggage tag, seat changes, and rebooking. Use FlightFlow for the actual status of your flight. The two are complementary; we do not try to replace the airline app and the airline app cannot replace us.

On your device

Will it work in airplane mode?

FlightFlow caches your tracked flights' latest data when you have signal. In airplane mode, you can still open the app and see the last-known status, gate, route, and ETA. Fresh updates pause until you reconnect. Calm Mode is fully offline once cached.

Will it drain my battery?

On Free, we do not poll in the background, so the app is designed to stay quiet while closed. On Pro, background polling is designed to be low-drain: we batch flight checks together and only poll during your travel window.

Does it use a lot of mobile data?

No. FlightFlow is designed to use modest mobile data because status payloads are small and Free has no background polling.

What about Apple Watch and Android widgets?

Your flight shows on your Apple Watch, plus lock-screen widgets, home-screen widgets, and the standby clock. These are all Pro features. They mirror your Live Activity or, when no flight is active, show your next upcoming flight's status at a glance. Android widgets ship via Glance.

Account, privacy, and trust

Do you sell my data?

No. We do not sell, license, or syndicate any user data to anyone. This is a contractual commitment, not a marketing claim. Our list of vendors and what each one does is at /privacy.

Will you raise the price on me?

Weekly, Monthly, and Annual get ninety days of notice on any price change, and the current rate is honored to the end of the billing period.

How do I cancel Pro?

Subscriptions are cancelled through the App Store or Google Play, the same way you cancel any subscription. Your access stays active through the end of your billing period. We do not need an email, a phone call, or a survey.

Where is my flight history stored, and what if I switch phones?

Every flight you add is backed up to our secure cloud the moment it's saved, free or Pro. No account or sign-in needed. We securely link that backup to your device through iCloud on iPhone or your Google account on Android, so when you reinstall the app or set up a new phone, your flights come back on their own. There's no password to remember and nothing to lose. We never sell your data; see /privacy for the full list.

What happens to my flight history if I downgrade or cancel?

Your data stays until you delete your account. Cancelling Pro reverts your account to Free; Pro-only views and alerts turn off, but the underlying flight records remain available for export and deletion.

Didn't see your question?

Email support@flightflowapp.com. We reply within one business day on weekdays. If your question is something other people might have too, we add it here.

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