Travel

Flying for Christmas? You’ll want to check the status of your Miami or FLL flight

View of passengers coming out of the customs area at Miami International Airport on Wednesday December 20, 2023.
View of passengers coming out of the customs area at Miami International Airport on Wednesday December 20, 2023. pportal@miamiherald.com

Ready for your Christmas flight? Well, your Christmas flight might not be ready for you.

Travel is stressful enough for the December holidays. But free online flight trackers can help you check the status of arrivals and departures at Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The tools are simple to use and can be filtered by time range, city and airline. You can also sort by arrival or departures.

Here are some of the websites and apps you can use to track your flight or the flight of a loved one during the Christmas and New Year’s travel stretch:

How to check your flight status at MIA?

Miami Herald File

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One of Miami International Airport’s flight trackers shows a list of all expected arrivals and departures with options to use a drop-down menu to narrow results. It shows the carrier, flight number and where the plane is going to or coming from. It also gives real-time updates on the flight’s arrival or departure status, which concourse the terminal is in, and the location of baggage claim.

MIA’s other flight tracker tool lets you track by flight or route. If you know the carrier, the date and the flight number, this tool might be easier to use since it will only pull the information for your flight.

How to check your flight status at FLL?

Be prepared if you’re flying out of Broward.
Be prepared if you’re flying out of Broward. Arkadiusz Warguła Getty Images/iStockphoto

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FLL’s flight tracker works by flight or route. To use it, you’ll need to know the date, along with the airline carrier and flight number, or the departure and arrival airport. The tool also gives people the option to see a list of all expected arrivals and departures and details on the flight’s terminal and baggage claim, too.

Some flights will also show you a map of where the plane is when it’s in the air.

How to check your flight status with airline

One of the water salutes the inbound inaugural Porter Airlines flight from Toronto received today at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport
One of the water salutes the inbound inaugural Porter Airlines flight from Toronto received today at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Courtesy of FLL

Another way to check your flight status is with the airline. Downloaded the airline’s app. You can also use the airline’s website. Here’s where to go for some of the popular airlines in South Florida:

American Airlines or download the app from the App store for Apple users or the Google Play store for Android users.

Delta or download the app from the App store for Apple users or the Google Play store for Android users.

United Airlines or download the app from the App store for Apple users or the Google Play store for Android users.

Southwest Airlines or download the app from the App store for Apple users or the Google Play store for Android users.

JetBlue or download the app from the App store for Apple users or the Google Play store for Android users.

Frontier Airlines or download the app from the App store for Apple users or the Google Play store for Android users.

Spirit Airlines or download the app from the App store for Apple users or the Google Play store for Android users.

This story was originally published December 21, 2023 at 8:05 AM.

Michelle Marchante
Miami Herald
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.  Support my work with a digital subscription
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