On-time ratings tracked

YOU found the best fare, but did you get the best flight? A new website lets you check a flight’s on-time rating -- and cancellation history -- before buying a ticket.

Flightstats.com, a free service from Portland, Ore.-based Conducive Technologies, uses government, airline and airport data to track flight performance in real time for the last 60 days. It’s the first time this information has been made available to the public. (Department of Transportation statistics are several months old by the time they’re released.)

At flightstats.com, travelers can look up delay and cancellation stats for a single flight -- or compare all flights on a particular route. Each is rated on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good). Southwest Flight 406 from LAX to Oakland, for example, gets low marks for being delayed 64% of the time in September and October.

The website also identifies the best performers on each route. In the case of Southwest from LAX to Oakland, 10 flights received a high on-time rating for arriving on or close to schedule.

Users can also monitor arrival and departure times, watch a flight’s progress in real time and check airport conditions. The site even offers an e-mail notification service.

To search the database, click on “Sample Apps� and choose one of the four applications.

Flightstat data are also available at www.pricegrabber.com, a newly launched travel booking engine.

-- Laurie Berger

Delving into Darwin

THE work of Charles Darwin, the 19th century English naturalist whose theory of evolution still engenders controversy, is brought to life in a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Live Galapagos tortoises and horned frogs are on display, along with fossils and other artifacts, such as a magnifying glass, from the scientist’s 1831 to 1836 voyage to the Galapagos Islands and other sites that inspired his ideas about natural selection.

Also featured is a reconstruction of Darwin’s study at Down House in the English countryside.

The exhibit, drawn from institutions around the world, runs through May 29 at the museum on Central Park West at 79th Street. Timed tickets cost $21 for adults, $16 for students and seniors and $12 for children. For information: (212) 769-5100 or www.amnh.org.

-- Jane Engle

New entries top AAA list

CALIFORNIA is home to the most hotels (15) and Florida the most restaurants (six) rated tops in AAA’s latest list. Among the changes in the 2006 Five Diamond Awards, announced Nov. 11:

* California added the Four Seasons Biltmore Santa Barbara, while the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa in Dana Point fell to four diamonds from five last year. The French Laundry restaurant in Yountville joined the five-diamond list. It had been unrated.

* In Nevada, the Alex restaurant at Wynn Las Vegas is newly listed, joining returning winners Le Cirque and Picasso, both at the Bellagio.

* In New York, the Mandarin Oriental was added to hotel winners.

Mobil Travel Guide announced its top 2006 awards last month. Mobil’s additions included the restaurants Bastide in Los Angeles and Per Se in New York City.

-- Jane Engle