Scott McCartney’s latest column is on the various flight status websites you can use to track a flight, monitor position, gate changes, etc.

Frequent travelers know that airline websites, and those from the major booking services, are often lacking. The conclusion of the piece? That my own favorite and most used, FlightStats.com, comes out as most useful and reliable. (This is also the one which the KVS Availability Tool integrates with.)

Not mentioned in the piece, one of my favotire tricks for United Airlines flight status is to check United Cargo, when a flight is delayed this site will give you the real reason why — useful when the airline doesn’t want to give you compensation, claiming that a delay is due to ‘weather’.

Update: Upgrade: Travel Better reports that American’s cargo website offers useful delay information as well.