If you’re a frequent traveler or dreaming of a vacation escape, you know that flights can be the most expensive part of a trip— so finding ways to save is a must.
One way to extend your vacations, protect your savings, and check more destinations off your bucket list is by taking advantage of these 7 free flight alert services and newsletters.
These email newsletters are run by groups of professional cheap flight searchers that constantly search thousands of routes around the world, and send you the best deals when they spot them. Some even claim to have found fares for 90% off.
Here’s how these services work and how you can take advantage:
<<Jump to list of cheap flight alert services>>
Cheap Flight Alerts – How they work
There are a variety of cheap flight alert services that send heavily discounted airfare deals to your email inbox when they spot departures from your home airport.
These companies have teams of online flight searchers who constantly review flight deals from everywhere to everywhere, curating the best ones, and sending out the deals to members when a significant price drop is spotted.
Basically, instead of you spending all day refreshing Google Flights, Kayak, and ITA Matrix waiting for something to pop up, they do this and send out the deals to all their email subscribers.
The Best Cheap Flight Email Alert Services
1. Going (Previously called Scott’s Cheap Flights)
Going, which used to be called Scott’s Cheap Flights, is one of the most well-known cheap flight alert services with over 2 million subscribers. They claim you can save up to 90% on flights using the deals they share in their alerts.
They’ve been around for several years now and I personally have their premium subscription now after being a free subscriber for a few years.
They send international deals, and also send a weekly email with shorter domestic weekend trips to places like Miami and Las Vegas which is neat since it’s often easier to get away for a weekend.
Sign up for Going (Previously Scott’s Cheap Flights)
2. Jack’s Flight Club
Jack’s Flight Club offers a similar service. When JFC first started, it was only available for the UK. But in the past few years, they have expanded to US departures as well.
Jack’s tends to send “combined” deals that show the prices from many airports. For example, if they spot a cheap flight deal to Paris, the deal alert emails will usually contain the flight pricing from Philadelphia to Paris, New York to Paris, Baltimore to Paris, etc.
This could either be seen as annoying and un-targeted, or good additional information depending on how you think about it.
I also have a premium paid membership for Jack’s too, which I think is somewhere around $40/year, after starting on the free membership which was also valuable.
Sign up for Jack’s Flight Club
3. Dollar Flight Club
Dollar Flight Club is also similar to Going and Jack’s Flight Club, but I have noticed one difference: it seems they are more likely to send domestic fares, whereas Going is more focused on international flights.
I also noticed that Dollar Flight Club will also include discount budget airlines like Spirit and Frontier in their alerts, while the other services tend to stick to full-service airlines like American, Delta, etc.
Sign up for Dollar Flight Club
4. Philly Flight List (only for Philadelphia)
Philly Flight List is essentially a localized version of these cheap flight alert services, meaning it only shares cheap flights departing from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL). They send international and domestic deals, and also occasionally share weekend deals. If you happen to live near Philly, check it out!
Sign up for Philly Flight List
Other Cheap Flight Alert Services to Explore
Below are several similar services I haven’t personally used, but have seen mentioned online. I can’t speak to the details, but at first glance, they all look fairly similar to the services described above, although some seem to cater to certain geographic regions.
6. Fare Drop
8. Secret Flight Club (European departure focus)
So poke around these sites to see if any of them work for you.
At the end of the day, you could potentially sign up for all 8 of these services if you’re really travel-obsessed. But I’d recommend starting with 2 or 3 to get a feel for what to expect.
Either way, you should be receiving some decent flights that will open up a new world of travel possibilities!