Waze for the airport. Run by the people in line.
Every airport app tells you the official wait, and it’s always wrong. So I built LineCheck: travelers time their line, the real wait posts, and the next person knows whether to leave now or grab another coffee.
The airport said 10 minutes. It was 41.
I missed a boarding call at MCO by a sad four minutes, standing in a “short” line. The official numbers are averages from somewhere else. The only people who actually know the wait are the ones standing in it.
So the idea was simple: let them say so. One tap from the line, and everybody behind them gets the truth. No app store, no real names, works on any phone.
One page per airport, all the stuff that matters.
Each airport gets its own page with a descriptive URL, a live FAA status line and the waits people just reported.
- Ticket counter, bag drop, security, PreCheck, CLEAR, Global Entry, curbside and terminal access
- A live map built on OpenStreetMap, with one-tap alerts: long line, closed, weather, delays, traffic
- Reports fade after 90 minutes, so stale numbers never pretend to be fresh
- “Best time to go” charts and a busy-days outlook once enough reports come in
A little social, a lot of useful.
Crowd apps die when nobody shows up, so I gave people reasons to stick around and help.
- Crew chat per terminal: “how’s checkpoint B?” Messages vanish after 6 hours
- Ask the terminal: questions answered only by people at that airport right now
- A line timer, a lounge crowd meter and gate change alerts from fellow travelers
- A weekly crown for the top reporter at each airport, reset every Monday
It tells you when to leave.
Drop your flight and gate in My Trip and LineCheck works out a leave-by time with the live security wait and food near your gate.
Add it to your home screen and turn on push alerts. You get a leave-now ping, plus a heads up when someone flags a gate change at your airport.
No real names. No couch reports.
You can browse everything without an account. If you want a handle, it’s anonymous, and instead of an email you get a recovery code. Only your handle and airport ever show, never your exact spot.
On the other side, fake reports get filtered: a location check, server-side spam checks, rate limits, traveler flags and a moderator queue for anything that smells off.
Product + UX
A 1-minute guided tour, big tap targets and a report that takes about 15 seconds.
Full-stack build
React front end, an edge API and a real database for reports, alerts, chat and trips.
Push + automation
Web push alerts, auto-fading reports and uptime monitoring with a public status page.
Español
One tap on ES flips the whole app to Spanish.
SEO + AI search
An airport directory, slug URLs per airport, a sitemap, Search Console and analytics.
Live, and still getting built.
LineCheck went live on October 27, 2026 at linechecker.app. It’s a work in progress and only gets better as people report, so if you fly this week, time your line and tell me what’s broken. There’s a “Comments to the developer” button for exactly that.
Common questions
Do I need to download anything?
Nope. It’s a website that works on any phone, and you can add it to your home screen for push alerts.
Is it affiliated with TSA or the airports?
No. It’s independent and crowd-powered. Use it as a guide and always leave yourself time.
Can you build an app like this for my business?
Rock on, yes. Crowd-powered tools, live maps, alerts and portals are my favorite kind of build.
Got an app idea that won’t leave you alone?
I built this one because a line annoyed me. Bring me yours and let’s make it real, from first sketch to push alerts.