MSN Direct Flight Status

I will request the service be added. thanks

http://www.dfwairport.com/flights/

It takes me about 45 minutes to get to the airport and they don't always call my cell phone and I don't have computer access on the road.

I went to msndirect and requested the added "gate" information.

If AA changes gates on the fly, just how do you expect MSN to get the update and have it posted, ready for broadcast? I've flown in to DFW and waited on the tarmac for a gate to clear only to have the flight be redirected after landing. There is no way that data could be processed and made ready for broadcast in less than 1/2 hour - if MSN received it as soon as it happened.

While gate info would be nice, the time between a flight arrival and a gate change may never make it to MSN in time to do any good for someone looking to pick up arriving passengers. I usually wait in the cell phone lot and have them call when they are at baggage claim. By then they normally know which terminal.

The way it is now times are of little value. I have arrived to pick up someone only to find the flight is going to another terminal and it was posted on the board. If they can get the times off the board, they can get the gate information.

Arrival times are part of the Air Traffic Control system and that data is not posted by the airline, but by the FAA. They need to know when an aircraft will be out of controlled airspace so they can fit another plane into that slot.

Arrival and departure times and gates are available on each airlines website. I'm just trying to make the service better.

If my simple request caused this extra BS, just FORGET IT.

American uses 4 of the 5 terminals, A, B, C & D.

I do not know how fast MSN updates are (I bought the MSN receiver cable for my 765T), but my Palm Pre has an application called FlightView which provides flight information and its pretty accurate. While in flight they even show the aircraft location in a map, showing weather info! It can also send you text messages with flight updates!

If flightview can receive and broadcast flight status so quickly (within minutes), why can't MSN do it?

It is simply beyond the ability of the system to deliver that level of detail.

I'll try to explain;

Because your Palm uses a dedicated higher speed internet connection to request only the information you require, relatively little data is exchanged between the phone and the server to provide the information you are asking for. There are network topology issues, but the reality is that the carrier has a number of high speed data circuits for every tower in his network which translates to a lot of capacity in the service coverage area.

MSN Direct uses a single, very low speed one way channel (though it is 8 times faster than the traffic-only systems have) piggybacked on an FM broadcast channel to send ALL of the data that EVERYONE requires in the service area, including user's activation information, traffic status, weather reports, Gas prices, Stock, news, maps, directed data and so on - all of the things that MSN Direct sends out to the public.

There is no inbound data path to file a request on, which is why they offer the feature to send loations to your navigator from your PC - though I, for one have never successfully done this.

So as a result, the information has to be pretty generic and relatively slow-changing, because the 'cycle time' to update everything can be fairly long. Obviously traffic updates are fed through the system on a priority basis - but even that data is pretty sparse.

All-in-all it is a lot of information, which is why you will see messages about waiting 'up to several hours' for certain slower-changing lower priority information to be updated when you check shortly after powering up the receiver or coming into range of an active transmitter.

There likely just isn't enough bandwidth for that level of detail for every flight arriving at every airport in your service area.

I can understand your position, but the data is not available on MSN Direct and may well never be, because they have limited bandwidth and their priorities may well be different from yours.

Until they do provide this information you can always just tell these people you are meeting to call you after they land and tell you what terminal they are at and go there to meet them at the exit.

You will be close by because you know WHEN they arrived because MSN Direct told you when they were arriving.

If they don't have a cell phone, you can tell them to make sure they have a quarter and to find a payphone to call you from on their way to baggage claim.

Not only that, but you'll save yourself the expense of parking and going in to meet them. They can come out to you.

If you want to go in and meet them and your phone has internet capability, you can always use that to get the gate information - or you can always call the airline or airport's info line.