My Go-To Websites for Finding the Best Flight Deals

How to find the best flight deals. Top websites for finding flight deals.

Are you tired of wasting time searching for inaccurate or overpriced flight deals? As a financially savvy traveler, I’m obsessed with travel deals but I know that not all “cheap flights” are worthy of your hard-earned money. That’s why it’s important to search for and book deals from reputable websites you trust. Here’s a list of my favorite websites and apps for finding the best flight deals. And since I’ve used all of these resources at one point, I’m confident that if you follow my advice you’ll book your next trip at a discount.

8 Ways To Find Your Next Flight Deal

Cheap flight deals - International flight deals.
We’re ready for our 15 hour flight from Shanghai to New York!

1. Thrifty Traveler

  • Flight deals: Domestic and international flights including Alaska and Hawaii
  • Membership Options: Free and paid version
  • Cost: $59.99 annually (at the time of publishing)

Thrifty Traveler (TT) is one of my favorite websites for finding cheap flights. TT teaches you how to maximize credit card sign-up bonuses, and points and miles to fund your international and domestic travel. Through their daily free newsletter, they notify you of Delta SkyMiles flash sales, error fares, and cheap flights from your home airport. They even offer travel credit card consulting so you can make your credit cards work for you. I have personally used TT to go to places like Lisbon and Chicago

For access to the cheapest international flights, sign up for Thrifty Traveler Premium. This paid membership costs $45 a year and includes flight deals that are customized based on your home airport or specified region. Once you subscribe, you will get over 40 flight deals straight to your inbox every month.

Other good news, your rate never goes up. Lock in your membership price when you subscribe to Thrifty Traveler Premium. Most TT flight deals can save you $250 to $500 per ticket. And since most of the fares are between six to nine months out, you’ll have plenty of time to budget and save for your trip. They also offer premium subscribers an exclusive Facebook group so you can network and maybe find a travel buddy for your next adventure.

Read my Thrifty Traveler Review here.

Listen to this podcast episode with Thrifty Traveler’s founder Jared Kamrowski where he shares how to find the best flight deals around.

Sign up for Thrifty Traveler Premium. Use the promo code ‘TC10’ for $10 off your first year of Thrifty Traveler Premium.

2. Dollar Flight Club

  • Flight deals: International flights
  • Membership: Free and paid version
  • Cost: $69 annually or $5.75 a month (at the time of publishing)

The Dollar Flight Club (DFC) is a flight deal subscription service that helps you save money and time by finding cheap international flight deals. The DFC team searches for flights all day long and when they find an extremely cheap one (deals between 60-90% off), they send you an email. Besides emails, they also update members through text messages so you never miss a deal. On average you can save over $500 on flights.

The Dollar Flight Club’s basic membership is free, but only gets you access to 25% of the flight deals. Also, the deals are for your region, not necessarily for the airport closest to you. For flight deals that are specific to your preferred airport, sign up for the premium membership.

Dollar Flight Club’s premium membership starts at $69 a year or $5.75 a month. You can filter by specific departure airports, avoid ads, and get deal alerts first–before free members. For example, premium members learn about error flights first and can travel internationally for deep discounts. 

Premium members also get access to discounts to some of Dollar Flight Club’s favorite partners like Acanela Expedition, Huckberry, and Topo Designs. 

Read my Dollar Flight Club review here.  

Sign up for Dollar Flight Club Premium here.

3. Scott’s Cheap Flights

  • Flight deals: International flights
  • Membership: Free and paid version
  • Cost: $49 annually (at the time of publishing)

Scott’s Cheap Flights scans the web for error fares and international flight deals. If you sign up for their free membership, you get emailed about a third of the available flight deals. However, if you want all the flight deals, you have to sign up for their paid membership which is currently $49 a year. Members have reported getting 40% to 90% off flights.

With premium membership you will gain up to 5x more access to their best offers and receive alerts on the best travel dates. Scott’s flight experts tend to find non-stop, single stop, and even business class flight deals so you can truly travel in comfort.

Helpful Tip: I like that Scott’s Cheap Flights provides you with instructions on how to book, a link to book your flight and informs you when the deal will likely end. 

4. Secret Flying

  • Flight deals: Domestic and international flights
  • Membership: Free 
  • Cost: Free 

Who wouldn’t want to shop for flight deals on a site that has “secret” in the name?

Secret Flying is a free website and app that provides domestic and international flight deals. If you download the app and register, you become a member and it’s absolutely free. As a member, you can subscribe to flights departing specific cities and countries, and receive notifications when deals are published.

Some of Secret Flying’s best flight deals are known as open-jaw flights. These are special deals that may have different departure and return airports. For example, you may leave New York and arrive in Tokyo. However, when you leave Tokyo your return flight may be to Boston. If you are up for figuring out your way home from a different airport, you can save big bucks on travel.

Secret Flying uses third party online travel agents, so you never have to give them your personal payment information. The flight deals offered by Secret Flying can sell out fast so I recommend following them on Facebook and Twitter to see the latest deals and book fast.

5. The Flight Deal

  • Flight deals: Domestic and international flights
  • Membership: None
  • Cost: $0

The Flight Deal is a website that allows you to search for car rentals, flights, and hotels all in one place. The website is absolutely free to use and prices are comparable to sites like Booking.com, Hotels.com and Expedia. The Flight Deal makes its money through affiliate links. So when you book your travel through them, they make a small commission, which allows them to keep offering you travel deals at no cost. 

Most flight deals mentioned are departing from major U.S. cities like New York, Boston, Dallas, and Seattle. However, the flights will take you anywhere from Asia to Hawaii. The Flight Deal aims to save you hours of browsing online with their one-stop-shop website.

6. The Points Guy

  • Flight deals: Domestic and international flights
  • Membership: None
  • Cost: $0

The Points Guy is a website that shows you ways to maximize your travel by utilizing credit card points, miles and other perks. Here you can also find reviews on flights, hotels, lounges, and credit cards. The flight deals include deals to domestic and international destinations. 

To learn the latest travel hacks and flight deals, you have to sign up for TPG’s daily newsletter. By signing up, you get daily tips about cheap flights, hotel deals and more on how to maximize points and miles to get to your dream vacation. 

I also recommend listening to their podcasts Talking Points and Miles Away. Talking Points is a weekly podcast where The Points Guy, Brian Kelly talks to top executives in the points-and-miles world, influencers and TPG staff. Miles Away shares how to travel to various destinations using points and miles and get recommendations on activities, hotels and when to book your trip.

7. Fly4Free

  • Flight deals: Domestic and international flights
  • Membership: None
  • Cost: $0

Fly4Free partners with travel companies like Kayak to help you book flights and hotels all in one place. Follow them on Twitter for the latest deals. This website focuses on deals from Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia. Fly4Free delivers you the most amazing flight deals every day, and it’s free!

Subscribe to receive email notifications.

8. Jetto

  • Flight deals: International flights
  • Membership: Free and paid version
  • Cost: $49 annually or $6.99 a month (at the time of publishing)

Jetto is a free app that was created by two globetrotters–Travis and Heather Sherry. Obsessed with traveling the world, Travis and Heather created an app that sends flight deals directly to your phone.

How does it work? Someone on the Jetto team searches for the best deals and verifies they are real. Then if that deal matches one of your selected airports (you can choose as many airports as you like) you get a notification. Deals go fast so Jetto allows you to book flights from your phone in just a few minutes. Jetto gives you all the flight details including luggage limits, layovers, dates, and travel times. 

If you sign up for the free version you get one flight deal a day. However, Platinum members get unlimited flight deals sent to their phones daily.

I recommend listening to Travis’ podcast Extra Pack of Peanuts Podcast for travel inspiration, tips and advice.

These are my go-to websites and apps for finding cheap flights, but in the comments I would love to hear what resources you recommend.

Best sites for cheap flights.
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My Go-To Websites for Finding the Best Flight Deals
1 reply
  1. Francisca says:

    Sites like these have the best travel deals and they make travelling easier. Thank you for sharing these tips.

    Reply

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