More tools before you fly

In the past, I've shared some of my tried & true tools for travel - here's a partial list:

• Seatguru to help you get better seats before you jump on the plane
• Things to do if you still get the middle seat
• Hz.com to help with (amongst a plethora of other things) figuring out if there is an earlier flight you can take
• Tools for combatting jet lag and dealing with red-eye flights
• Preventing wrinkles in your clothing when you travel

Today, I'd like to share another resource: Flightstats.com

I found out about this from my colleague Tom, who turned me on to it when I told him about Seatguru. Some of the useful things you can do with Flightstats - all from one place with no hunting - include:

• See the latest government air security bulletins
• Find out what the typical security wait times are for your airport, by time of day (in graphical form, as shown here, also in a table by airline / concourse, with hourly detail)
• Find out the historical on-time ratings for your flights (and even compare the on-time performance of flights you're considering)
• Find out about airline mileage club promotions and other "specials"
• Forums to share experiences with other fliers
• And a lot more

They even offer an "All In One Widget" that lets you check flight status, view flight performance, sign up for notifications, and view current airport delays within the United States - right there on your desktop.

You need to register to get all the features, but it's free and their privacy policy is good.

Check it out - and make travel a bit more bearable.