Apps to track holiday traveler
Busy times call for mobile alerts that post arrivals, delays.
The holidays are one of the busiest times of the year for traveling, and if you’re expecting guests, mobile apps help you track them.
Some apps are better than others, but all do the job:
Greyhound: Its app features an excellent live tracker that shows you the scheduled time, predicted time and actual time of arrivals and departures of its buses. Search by bus number, route, or arrival/ departure city. Easy to refresh, very accurate. It even shows an icon of the bus on the line to identify its current location.
MegaBus USA: Its app has a “trip status” feature, but it is only marginally helpful. Yes, it shows the starting point and the time a bus left and its expected arrival time at the end, but it does not show you where the bus is now, nor does it show you any intermediate stop arrival or departure times. MegaBus serves Columbus and Cincinnati.
Amtrak: Its app has a very good “train status” tracker. It’s not quite as friendly or detailed as the Greyhound tracker, but it has proven extremely reliable for planning a pickup or drop-off of a friend or family member. Search by arrival or destination point or by train number. Since Amtrak trains tend to run late, the tracker can prevent long waits at the station. Amtrak serves Cincinnati.
Delta Airlines: Delta has the best airline app, period, with speedy and accurate information on your trips, SkyMiles and more. Its tracking feature “Flight Status” lets you search by flight number or arrival/destination, and it also lets you “watch flight” to see its current position.
Southwest Airlines: It works, but if you leave it alone, it will forget your query, and you have to keep putting in the query again and again to follow the flight.
FlightAware Flight Tracker: This app is a great backup for flight tracking; sometimes it is more up to the minute than airline flight trackers. If flying myself, I also like it for its feature called “track inbound flight,” which shows you the aircraft arriving that will be your plane for departure.