It’s happened to all of us. You get to the airport and your flight gets delayed by ten minutes. No big deal, you think. You’ll just hang out at the gate. Ten minutes passes, and it’s delayed another ten minutes, and then yet another ten minutes. What the heck??

I don’t know the reasoning behind the delay times shown for flights (or sometimes if there is any reason at all). Maybe they just like to keep us guessing. Who knows! I for one am tired of playing their games. If I’m hungry, but I’m afraid my plane is going to leave sooner rather than later, I won’t go get food. If your plane is at the gate you should keep close by. But if your plane hasn’t even arrived yet, there is a great app that can help called FlightAware.

You can enter your flight info—airline and flight number or origin and destination—and FlightAware will tell you exactly where your plane is. During a recent delay, I knew that my plane was halfway to Nashville from Phoenix, so I had plenty of time to go get some food. It will track your plane, giving regular updates, so you know exactly when you need to head back to the gate.

The app will also tell you what cities are experiencing delays. For example, as I write this, New York’s La Guardia is on a 1:15-1:30 delay due to weather. This is super helpful for trip planning.

The app is free, and the website has even more features. There are small ads, but I just ignore them. I use it any time a flight is delayed, and would recommend it to everyone.

(Seriously, what did we do before smartphones???)

Readers, what is your favorite travel app?