Airline staff do not always have all the information when they tell you the reason for a flight’s delay or cancellation. In the absence of details, they may blame it on “weather,” since this is a situation the airline can’t control and for which it therefore usually isn’t liable. But, if you suspect other causes for the delay or cancellation, you may be able to use ExpertFlyer to get the real reason.
And the real reason can make a significant difference. For example, the American Airlines customer service plan states:
“If the delay or cancellation is caused by events beyond our control (like weather), you are responsible for your own overnight accommodations, meals and incidental expenses.”
However, if the delay or cancellation is caused by factors the airline can control (such as crew or aircraft availability), it’s a different story entirely.
Each airline has different policies, and some countries also have regulations that protect travelers (such as EU261). You may also have travel insurance or a credit card with trip delay protection.
So, now that you know why you might need to know what caused a delay or cancellation, here’s how you may be able to use ExpertFlyer to get this information.
What is ExpertFlyer?
Before we dive into how to use ExpertFlyer to see flight delay or cancellation reasons, let’s briefly discuss the ExpertFlyer product itself. ExpertFlyer is a product that many advanced travelers and travel agents use to find awards and upgrades, check flight availability and see fare information.
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ExpertFlyer offers a free tier that’s primarily useful for using ExpertFlyer alerts to secure a better seat. There’s also a Basic tier that costs $4.99 per month (or $49.99 per year) that allows you to set four alerts at a time. It also lets you search for awards and upgrades one date at a time (up to 250 queries per month).
However, the true power and usefulness of ExpertFlyer come from its Premium tier. This tier costs $9.99 per month (or $99.99 per year) but offers 200 alerts at a time (including aircraft change alerts and schedule change alerts). Additionally, it offers the ability to search for awards and upgrades in one-week intervals (with unlimited queries) and access to all available published fare pricing.
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You’ll need a Premium ExpertFlyer membership to see the reason for a flight delay or cancellation. However, you can enroll in a five-day free trial for Premium when signing up for ExpertFlyer, so you could use it during a short period of time for the purpose of looking up information on your flight’s issues.
Related: Beginners guide to finding award space with ExpertFlyer
How to use ExpertFlyer to see the reason for a flight delay or cancellation
Once you have a Premium ExpertFlyer account, you may be able to use it to see the reason for a recent flight delay or cancellation. To see if ExpertFlyer can see why your flight was delayed or cancelled, log in and click “Flight Status” on the left-hand navigation menu.
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Enter the date, select the airline after entering its code and enter the flight number.
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Once you click “Search,” a page with flight information will load.
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Click on “View additional comments,” and then you may see the reason for the delay or cancellation.
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In the case of AA167 on Dec. 8, the delay was due to an aircraft equipment swap earlier in the day that affected this flight. So, you could use this information if you needed to prove that the delay was within the airline’s control and wasn’t due to weather or other factors. If you find the additional comments difficult to understand, you may want to use a large language model, such as ChatGPT, to assist in decoding the text.
Why ExpertFlyer might not show your flight’s delay or cancellation reason
Unfortunately, ExpertFlyer can’t provide detailed flight status information for every airline. And the explanations provided by some airlines will be less detailed than those provided by American Airlines in the example above. In short, ExpertFlyer will only display useful flight status comments if your airline publishes operational remarks and delay codes in the Global Distribution System feed that ExpertFlyer can read.
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You can usually use ExpertFlyer to find the reason for a delay or cancellation on an American Airlines or Alaska Airlines flight, but not on budget carriers or Delta Air Lines. The delay and cancellation reasons you can find via ExpertFlyer for United flights are inconsistent, but sometimes helpful. However, if you’re on an international carrier that uses Amadeus for its airport operations (such as British Airways), you’ll likely be able to see the delay or cancellation reason.
Finally, you can only get flight status information through ExpertFlyer for flights in the last seven days and the next three days. But the information may not be available for flights operated by some airlines if you wait more than a day or so. Thus, if you experience a flight delay or cancellation, it makes sense to immediately check the reason in ExpertFlyer and take a screenshot, even if you don’t expect to need it.
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