Things you code when your flight is delayed...

check_aa_flight.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'rubygems'
require 'nokogiri'
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'

GATETIMES_URL = 'http://www.aa.com/travelInformation/gatesTimesSubmit.do'

RESULTS_HEADER = 3
TIME_HEADER = 4
CARRIER_INFO = 5
FLIGHT_INFO = 6

def results_group_xpath(row)
  "//div/table/tr[4]/td/table/tr[2]/td/table/tr[#{row.to_i}]"
end

def get_headers(doc, time_headers = false)
  headers = []
  headers_row = doc.xpath(results_group_xpath(time_headers ? TIME_HEADER : RESULTS_HEADER))
  headers_row.children.each do |child|
    child = child.text.strip.sub(/\s+/, '')
    headers.push child if child.length > 0 and child != '' and child != 'FlightStatusNotification' and child != 'Time'
    headers.push get_headers(doc, true) if child == 'Time'
  end

  headers.flatten
end

abort 'check_flights <flight number> <origin airport> <destination airport>' unless ARGV.length == 3

flight = {
  'number' => ARGV[0].to_i,
  'origin' => ARGV[1],
  'dest' => ARGV[2]
}

post_params = {
  'currentCodeForm' => '',
  'currentCalForm' => 'dep',
  'originAirport' => flight['origin'],
  'destinationAirport' => flight['dest'],
  'flightNumber' => flight['number'],
  'travelDate' => 'Today',
  'flightParams.flightDateParams.searchTime' => '080000',
  '_button_success' => 'GO'
}

url = URI.parse GATETIMES_URL
res = Net::HTTP.post_form url, post_params

doc = Nokogiri::HTML res.body
puts doc.xpath('//div[@class="cHeader"]').text.gsub(/\s+/, ' ')

headers = get_headers doc

flight_info = {}
flight_info[headers[0]] = doc.xpath(results_group_xpath(CARRIER_INFO)).children.first.children.last.text.strip

flight_info_row = doc.xpath(results_group_xpath(FLIGHT_INFO))
flight_info_row.children.each_slice(2) do |child|
  child = child[0].text.strip
  flight_info[headers[flight_info.keys.length]] = child
end

puts
headers.each { |k| puts "#{k.ljust(12)}: #{flight_info[k]}" }

__END__

$ ./check-flight.rb 319 LGA ORD
Flight #319 - DELAYED

Carrier     : AMERICAN AIRLINES
City        :  LGA New York 
Date        :  05/14/2011 
Scheduled   :  09:55 AM 
Estimated   :  11:15 AM 
Actual      :   
Terminal    :   
Gate        :  D6 
BaggageClaim: