Flying for Christmas? Stay Up to Date With Your iPhone's Secret Flight Tracker

If you're traveling or plan to be soon for Thanksgiving , you might be concerned about flight delays and cancellations. This is normal for typical high-traffic flight dates, but the government shutdown has increased the risk even more, so staying on top of your flight status is imperative. Getting up-to-date flight information has never been easier. You can check your flight status through your airline's app or its website easily enough - or you can just use your iPhone's secret flight tracker. You read that right. Your iPhone has a built-in flight tracker, but it's tucked away and you might not realize you even have it. Below, we'll show you how to access it so you have some peace of mind while traveling this season. Don't miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source on Chrome. How to track your flight via iMessage Before we start, there are a few prerequisites you must meet: Make sure iMessage is enabled (it doesn't work with SMS/MMS). You'll need your flight number somewhere in your text messages, whether you've sent that information to someone (even yourself) or it's been sent to you. The flight number must be sent in this format: [Airline] [Flight number] , for example, American Airlines 9707. Launch the native Messages app on your iPhone and open the text message thread that contains your flight information. You'll know the flight tracker feature works when the text with the flight information appears underlined, which means it's actionable and you can tap on it. If your flight is still several months away or it's already passed, you might see a message that says, "Flight information unavailable." You might also see another flight that's not yours because airlines recycle flight numbers. You can check your flight status from Spotlight Search, too You can drop your flight number into your iPhone's Spotlight Search to quickly get the latest details and status of your upcoming flight. Screenshot by CNET If getting your flight information from Messages wasn't easy enough, you can also grab the details right from your iPhone's home screen by swiping down and adding your flight number into Spotlight Search. This works with Spotlight Search on your Mac computer, too. How to access the hidden flight tracker Although the airline name/flight number format highlighted above is the best way to go, there are other texting options that will lead you to the same result. So let's say we stick with American Airlines 9707 , other options that may bring up the flight tracker include: AmericanAirlines9707 (no spaces) AmericanAirlines 9707 (only one space) AA9707 (airline name is abbreviated and no space) AA 9707 (abbreviated and space) I would suggest you keep the airline name spelled out completely and add a space between the two pieces of information -- like in the previous section -- because for some airlines, these alternative options may not work. Text the code to preview your flight. Nelson Aguilar/CNET Real-time flight...

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