Stay ahead of flight disruptions.

• Live

  A licensed provider answered, and the answer is inside the freshness threshold for that source.

• Cached

  A provider answer we already had, still inside the cache window the license permits. Older than live, and labeled as such.

• Stale

  Past the normal freshness threshold. Still shown, because out-of-date context beats no context — but shown as stale, and never as confirmation.

• Demo

  Fixture data from the demonstration itinerary. It is not a real flight, and every demo panel says so.

• Unavailable

  No trustworthy answer exists. The value stays unknown, the screen names the fact that is missing, and nothing is filled in to cover the gap.

• Heuristic risk band

  A qualitative band, not a probability. No calibrated model is deployed, so DelayPilot shows a band and the factors behind it, and no percentage anywhere.

Flight information can change quickly. Confirm critical details with the operating airline and airport.

• The status, and how much to trust it

  Scheduled and current times with the airport code and time zone, the status, the delay against schedule, and the label that says whether this is live, cached, stale, demo, or unavailable.

• A delay and cancellation read

  A heuristic risk band with the factors behind it. No calibrated model is deployed, so DelayPilot shows the band and the reasoning and no percentage — a number nobody validated is worse than no number.

• How much room the connection has

  Available time, required transfer time, and the slack between them, with every component labeled as measured, policy-derived, airport-derived, or estimated.

• The rights that may apply

  Refund, rebooking, care, and compensation rules that may apply under the rule version shown, with a link to the official source. An estimate based on the facts entered, never a determination.

Available time

From the estimated gate-in of the arriving flight to the gate-close of the next one. Not the published departure time: the door closes earlier.

Required time

What the transfer itself needs — walking the distance, any security or immigration step, and rechecking a bag where that applies.

Slack

Available time minus required time. Negative slack means the connection does not work as currently scheduled, and the checklist takes over from the meter.

Where each component comes from

Every component is labeled with how it was arrived at, because a measured number and a modeled number deserve different amounts of trust.

Measured

Read from an observed value in a source response.

Policy-derived

Taken from a published airline or airport rule, such as a gate-close time or a minimum connection time.

Airport-derived

Taken from published airport data about the terminals, the transfer path, and whether it crosses a border control.

Estimated

Derived rather than observed, and labeled as such wherever it appears. An estimate does not become a measurement by being displayed next to one.

Separate tickets are a different problem

Separate tickets usually leave rebooking and baggage recovery to you. Build in more time and verify each airline's rules.

Walking, security, immigration, baggage, gate-close rules, and airline assistance can change the outcome.

The five answers a rule can give

• Likely applies

  The facts entered meet the conditions in the rule version shown. Still an estimate — the airline or the regulator decides.

• May apply

  The rule could cover this, and at least one condition depends on a fact that is unproven or missing.

• Not indicated

  On the facts entered, this rule does not appear to cover what happened.

• Cannot determine

  A fact the rule turns on is missing, and the card names which one rather than guessing at it.

• Future rule, not active

  A reform has been adopted but is not yet in force. Shown for context, never applied to an event before its effective date.

Why it always says "may"

Eligibility turns on the full circumstances, on the cause the airline gives in writing, and on a decision DelayPilot does not make. Nearby weather is not proof that a disruption was outside an airline's control, and a provider's reason string is what the airline said, not what was established.

Current rules and adopted reforms are kept apart

Where a reform has been adopted but has not taken effect, the current rule is the one applied and the future rule is shown separately with its status and its effective date. Applying a future rule early is wrong in exactly the direction that costs a traveler money.

Informational estimate, not legal advice. Eligibility depends on the full facts, current law, and the airline or regulator's determination.

• Info

  Something changed that is worth knowing: a schedule detail, a gate, a terminal.

• Watch

  A meaningful delay, or connection slack that is shrinking toward the required transfer time.

• Urgent

  A cancellation, a diversion, a likely missed connection, a major schedule change, or a rights or action step that is time-limited.

• Resolved

  The situation the earlier alerts described has ended, and the message says how it ended.

How a disruption unfolds

The same itinerary, moving through five states. Each one is designed, tested, and worded on its own — including the ones where the answer is that we do not know.

1. Scheduled

   Both flights are on schedule. The status carries the source it came from and how old that response is, so a quiet screen is still an informative one.

2. Inbound delay

   The first flight pushes back later than planned. The itinerary still works. The screen says what changed, what it means for the connection, and nothing more than that.

3. Connection watch

   Slack shrinks toward the required transfer time. The band moves to watch, the transfer components are broken out so you can see which one is eating the time, and alerts stay on.

4. Cancellation

   A material disruption is confirmed. The action checklist moves to the front, ordered by what is time-sensitive and what cannot be undone, with the source for each step.

5. Rights that may apply

   The facts entered are read against the rule version shown, and the card says what may apply, what is still missing, and which official source to check. It is an estimate, and it says so.

The list above is the whole chronology. Motion only moves between the steps; it never carries information of its own.

Every message carries the flight and the date, what changed, how fresh the source was, the next useful step, and a link back. None carries anything from your ticket, your full email address, payment details, or a legal guarantee.

Monitoring is not connected in this deployment, so no alert is sent today. The ladder above is the contract the alerts are written against.

• Methodology
• Data sources
• About DelayPilot

• Data freshness, provider limits, and the six labels we use

  Every figure here carries a label saying where it came from and how old it is. What each label means, why data goes stale, and what the limits are.

  Last reviewed 2026-09-12

• How DelayPilot estimates connection risk

  The method in full: available time, required time, slack, the provenance of each component, and when a probability may be computed at all.

  Last reviewed 2026-09-12

• How DelayPilot estimates disruption risk

  Today the answer is a labelled heuristic band, not a percentage. What goes into it, why no number is shown, and the gate a model must pass first.

  Last reviewed 2026-09-12

• Minimum connection time is a threshold, not a forecast

  A connection minimum is what makes an itinerary sellable. A realistic connection is built from deplaning, walking, queues, bags and a gate-close time.

  Last reviewed 2026-09-12

• What to save during a disruption, and in what order

  An assessment is only as good as the facts behind it. The short list worth capturing during a disruption, in the order things become unrecoverable.

  Last reviewed 2026-09-12