Travel expert reveals #1 flying hack

It will mean you never have to look at an airport screen again.

image: Darby Maloney / TikTok

Air travel, while often a pleasurable experience for avid travellers, can come with a unique set of stressors. 

The frustration of navigating foreign airports to find your gate, anxiously listening for announcements about flight delays and cancellations, and feverishly updating loved ones with last-minute changes to your flight plan all typically add undue hitches to jet-setters’ plans.

But this ex-airline employee’s trending tip may help frequent flyers steer clear of the chaos. 

“I worked in the airline industry for three years and this is my number one flying hack,” began content creator Darby Maloney, 28, in a buzzy TikTok bulletin on avoiding plane-day stuff ups.

@durbinmalonster

S/O @Brooke Webster for teaching me this in my bag loading days 7 years ago

♬ original sound - Darby

“The morning of your flight, you’re going to text yourself your flight number — but the key is, you have to include your airline code,” she explained, referencing the 1 to 4 digit number that’s assigned to each flight, as well as the two-character designator that every airline uses to differentiate itself from other imprints. 

“For example,” said Maloney, “If I’m flying American [Airlines] flight 686, I’m going to type ‘AA686.’”

She then advised her over 12 million virtual viewers to send the code to whoever was picking them up from the airport at their final destination. And for folks planning to hop into an Uber after landing, she suggested texting the code to themselves. 

“That text will become a link to tell you everything you need to know about your flight and it will update in real-time,” Maloney revealed. 

“What’s your gate? You’re going to go through security, click on your link and [get your exact gate number],” she continued. 

image: Darby Maloney / TikTok

The cyber-savvy millennial even gave online audiences a glimpse at how well her hack works, demonstrating the easy breeziness of accessing traveling info for her upcoming jaunt from Miami to Salt Lake City. 

“It’s on time,” she said, reading the detailed description of her trip via the link. The rundown included her gate number, expected flight duration and her baggage claim carrousel. 

“If it changes, it will change in that link”, Maloney raved. “Whoever is picking you up can literally see your little airplane flying across the screen [of their phone]…they can see [if] your flight status changes.”

“It’s the greatest hack — I never have to look at the screens in the airport anymore,” she gushed. 

“If you have a connecting flight, just text yourself both flight [codes],” advised Maloney, who later noted that her hack is an Apple feature that can only be used by iPhone users. “The second you land, you can just click your link and know exactly what your gate is so when you get off of the plane, boom, you’re off to your connection.”

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and has been republished with permission.

Originally published as Travel expert reveals #1 flying hack