CAPTCHA Handling for Flight Status Monitoring

Flight status monitoring requires frequent checks across multiple airline and airport portals. These portals protect their real-time data with Cloudflare Turnstile, reCAPTCHA, and custom CAPTCHAs — especially when they detect repeated automated queries. Here's how to handle CAPTCHAs while building reliable flight tracking tools.

Where CAPTCHAs Appear

Flight Monitoring Architecture

import requests
import time
from datetime import datetime

class FlightMonitor:
    def __init__(self, api_key):
        self.api_key = api_key
        self.session = requests.Session()
        self.session.headers.update({
            "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36"
        })

    def check_flight(self, airline_url, flight_number):
        """Check flight status, handling CAPTCHAs if encountered."""
        response = self.session.get(
            f"{airline_url}/flight-status/{flight_number}"
        )

        if self._is_captcha_page(response):
            response = self._solve_and_retry(response, airline_url)

        return self._parse_flight_data(response.text)

    def _is_captcha_page(self, response):
        return (
            response.status_code == 403 or
            "cf-turnstile" in response.text or
            "g-recaptcha" in response.text
        )

    def _solve_and_retry(self, response, url):
        import re

        # Detect CAPTCHA type
        if "cf-turnstile" in response.text:
            match = re.search(r'data-sitekey="(0x[^"]+)"', response.text)
            token = self._solve_turnstile(match.group(1), url)
            field = "cf-turnstile-response"
        else:
            match = re.search(r'data-sitekey="([^"]+)"', response.text)
            token = self._solve_recaptcha(match.group(1), url)
            field = "g-recaptcha-response"

        return self.session.post(url, data={field: token})

    def _solve_turnstile(self, site_key, page_url):
        resp = requests.post("https://ocr.captchaai.com/in.php", data={
            "key": self.api_key,
            "method": "turnstile",
            "sitekey": site_key,
            "pageurl": page_url,
            "json": 1
        })
        task_id = resp.json()["request"]
        return self._poll_result(task_id)

    def _solve_recaptcha(self, site_key, page_url):
        resp = requests.post("https://ocr.captchaai.com/in.php", data={
            "key": self.api_key,
            "method": "userrecaptcha",
            "googlekey": site_key,
            "pageurl": page_url,
            "json": 1
        })
        task_id = resp.json()["request"]
        return self._poll_result(task_id)

    def _poll_result(self, task_id):
        for _ in range(60):
            time.sleep(3)
            result = requests.get("https://ocr.captchaai.com/res.php", params={
                "key": self.api_key,
                "action": "get",
                "id": task_id,
                "json": 1
            })
            data = result.json()
            if data["status"] == 1:
                return data["request"]
        raise TimeoutError("CAPTCHA solve timed out")

    def _parse_flight_data(self, html):
        # Parse flight status from HTML
        from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
        soup = BeautifulSoup(html, "html.parser")
        return {
            "status": soup.select_one(".flight-status")?.text,
            "departure": soup.select_one(".departure-time")?.text,
            "arrival": soup.select_one(".arrival-time")?.text,
            "gate": soup.select_one(".gate-info")?.text,
            "checked_at": datetime.now().isoformat()
        }

Periodic Monitoring with CAPTCHA Handling

def monitor_flight(monitor, airline_url, flight_number, 
                   interval_seconds=300, max_checks=48):
    """Monitor a flight every N seconds, handling CAPTCHAs as needed."""
    history = []

    for check_num in range(max_checks):
        try:
            status = monitor.check_flight(airline_url, flight_number)
            history.append(status)

            # Alert on changes
            if len(history) > 1 and status["status"] != history[-2]["status"]:
                print(f"Status changed: {history[-2]['status']} → {status['status']}")

            print(f"Check {check_num + 1}: {status['status']} "
                  f"(Gate: {status.get('gate', 'Coming soon')})")

        except Exception as e:
            print(f"Check {check_num + 1} failed: {e}")

        time.sleep(interval_seconds)

    return history

# Usage
monitor = FlightMonitor("YOUR_API_KEY")
monitor_flight(monitor, "https://airline.example.com", "AA1234")

Multi-Airline Monitoring (JavaScript)

class FlightTracker {
  constructor(apiKey) {
    this.apiKey = apiKey;
    this.flights = new Map();
  }

  async addFlight(airline, flightNumber, checkUrl) {
    this.flights.set(flightNumber, {
      airline,
      url: checkUrl,
      history: [],
      lastCheck: null
    });
  }

  async checkAll() {
    const results = [];

    for (const [flightNum, flight] of this.flights) {
      try {
        const status = await this.checkFlight(flight.url, flightNum);
        flight.history.push(status);
        flight.lastCheck = new Date();
        results.push({ flight: flightNum, ...status });
      } catch (error) {
        results.push({ flight: flightNum, error: error.message });
      }
    }

    return results;
  }

  async checkFlight(url, flightNumber) {
    const response = await fetch(`${url}/status/${flightNumber}`);
    const html = await response.text();

    // Check for CAPTCHA
    if (html.includes('cf-turnstile') || response.status === 403) {
      return this.solveAndRetry(url, flightNumber, html);
    }

    return this.parseStatus(html);
  }

  async solveAndRetry(url, flightNumber, html) {
    const siteKeyMatch = html.match(/data-sitekey="(0x[^"]+)"/);
    if (!siteKeyMatch) throw new Error('No sitekey found');

    const token = await this.solveTurnstile(siteKeyMatch[1], url);

    const response = await fetch(`${url}/status/${flightNumber}`, {
      method: 'POST',
      body: new URLSearchParams({ 'cf-turnstile-response': token })
    });

    return this.parseStatus(await response.text());
  }
}

Monitoring Frequency and CAPTCHA Rates

Session Optimization

Reduce CAPTCHA encounters by maintaining session state:

Troubleshooting

FAQ

How often should I check flight status?

Every 5–15 minutes is typical. More frequent checks trigger more CAPTCHAs and may result in IP blocks. CaptchaAI handles Turnstile with 100% success rate, so the limiting factor is the portal's rate limits, not CAPTCHA solving.

Can I monitor flights from multiple airlines at once?

Yes. Use separate sessions per airline and solve CAPTCHAs independently for each. CaptchaAI handles concurrent requests across different sites.

Do airline mobile APIs have CAPTCHAs?

Mobile APIs typically use different authentication (API keys, OAuth) rather than CAPTCHAs. However, the web endpoints they serve may still have Cloudflare protection.

Related Articles

• Geetest Vs Cloudflare Turnstile Comparison
• Cloudflare Turnstile 403 After Token Fix
• Cloudflare Turnstile Widget Modes Explained

Next Steps

Build reliable flight monitoring — get your CaptchaAI API key and handle airline CAPTCHAs automatically.