If you love cheap flight deals, then you’ve probably heard of Going – formerly known as Scott’s Cheap Flights. The concept of Going is simple. You sign up, enter your home airport, and go about your life, waiting for amazing deals on airfare to arrive in your inbox.
Going won’t spam you. The deals are found by a team of real human beings who are among the world’s best at finding cheap airline tickets.
You’ll only be notified of deals that these experts determine to be truly too good to pass up. And Going has no incentive to “sell” you the ticket – once they tell you about it, it’s up to you to go to the airline’s site and book tickets separately.
Going has long been one of the best in the game of sending travel deals to its members, but they are not the only ones. For travelers who want to maximize their chances of getting the best deals and minimize their manual flight search endeavors, signing up for multiple of these services is a wise decision.
We know of several sites like Going that find the lowest fares in the sky for you. So before booking your next flight, plug your departure city into one of these and reallocate the savings to other parts of your trip.
Top Going.com Alternatives
Even if you aren’t planning to book flights anytime soon, sign up for as many of these as you want, as the deals they find are often several months away. Each one of them has a free version, like Going, and it doesn’t hurt to maximize the number of awesome deals you come across.
1. Dollar Flight Club
Dollar Flight Club is one of the best Going alternatives with amazing cheap flight deals for free. The basic version of DFC includes up to one notification per day from your departure region of choice, including international flights. You can also log onto your account at any time to see some of the cheapest flights they’ve recently found.
Travelers who want even more deals can upgrade to a Premium for a small cost. This gets you access to four times more deals, the ability to select even more departure airports, and access to mistake fares – the holy grail of cheap flights.
If you want the best of the best, Premium Plus is the top tier you can subscribe to. It comes with all the benefits mentioned, plus business class and premium economy deals, as well as a priority travel support line.
No matter which membership level you choose, check out some of the helpful tips Dollar Flight Club publishes in their blog articles. They have some great guides for layovers, budget travelers, and digital nomads.
2. Thrifty Traveler
Completing the trifecta of major sites that help fliers save money is Thrifty Traveler, which similarly locates deeply discounted flights and lets its members take advantage of them. Like its two aforementioned counterparts, Thrifty Traveler lets you pick a home airport and lets you know about cheap flight tickets headed anywhere from there.
The free version is pretty valuable and absolutely worth having if you want to find the best deals on the internet. But upgrading to Thrifty Traveler Premium will get you ten times more deals, including tickets in business class and those booked with miles. We also like this site’s frequent articles on money-saving tips, credit card offers, and ideas for affordable travel.
See Related: Easy Ways to Book Cheap Round Trip Flights to Anywhere
3. Mighty Travels
One of the other sites looking around the clock for the best flight deal on the internet is Mighty Travels. It deploys both humans and artificial intelligence on this mission to maximize the chances of flying for cheap.
At first glance, Mighty Travels looks a bit rougher around the edges than Going and the previous two, but there’s good value in becoming a member. You won’t be able to see much before either becoming a free member or signing up for a free trial of premium versions.
But once you’re in, the free version will display some of the cheapest flights that have been found from your local airport; you’ll also receive cheap fare alerts twice per month. Unlike Going, which focuses on departures from the US, Mighty Travels has offers from around the world.
The value is really in the three levels of premium membership – mistake fares, premium cabins, and more airports and regions to search are allowed, including your preferred destinations rather than just random ones. You can get 14 days for free to try any of them, and the results can be impressive.
4. Matt’s Flights
Matt’s Flights is an interesting alternative to look into for your next trip because while it functions very similar to the sites we’ve seen so far, there’s one major difference: the “team” behind searching the internet for cheap flights is Matt himself. He’s a one-man show that personally curates the deals sent to his site’s members once per week, and that reflects his passion for this stuff.
Matt offers a premium service on top of the free version. Among its top benefits is the fact that you have personal access to Matt at any time via email for travel planning help.
If you send him the details for a trip you want to take, he’ll put together a flight itinerary as cheaply as he can. Premium members will also get more deals in their inbox.
5. Jack’s Flight Club
Another great option for both domestic and international flight bookers is Jack’s Flight Club, a service based in the United Kingdom. Jack’s email alerts started off with cheap flights from UK airports but now cover all of Northern Europe and beyond. Therefore, this is a great choice for those living across the pond.
Free members can expect one or two email alerts per week with a selection of the crazy-cheap flights they’ve seen. Premium members get three or four times the deals.
Jack’s looks at both short-haul flights and long-haul services overseas, and they cover both low-cost and full-service airlines. And North American airports are included, so don’t pass up on this one just because you’re not across the pond.
See Related: The Best Times to Buy Flights to Europe (Backed by Data)
6. Secret Flying
If you love a good flight deal, then you’ll love Secret Flying because it’s totally free! All of the benefits are for everyone who signs up, with no payment required. That even includes mistake fares.
Like the others on this list, you simply sign up and select the airports you’d like to receive deals from. You can choose multiple if you want, and coverage is worldwide, so you aren’t limited to the US or any region. You won’t select any destinations; rather, you’ll get all the deals from the airports you choose, but not to the point that it’s spam.
When the team behind Secret Flying finds something too good to pass up, they let you know and even provide a link directly to the booking site. You’ll want to act fast because deals don’t usually last long – especially elusive error fares.
7. Airfarewatchdog
Airfarewatchdog is another big name in the flight deal-finding industry. As usual, it’s as simple as entering your email and your home airport, and it’s another totally free option. But there are some interesting functions on this site that help it stand out.
You can simply opt to receive alerts for cheap flights “anywhere” from your home airport, or you can specify a few dream destinations. There is no limit to the number of routes you want to specify for alerts. Plus, they also search for cheap hotel deals, adding to your savings on vacation.
8. Momondo
While most direct alternatives to Going find cheap flights for you, it sometimes pays to do it yourself. Flight search engines like Momondo are the way to go to easily identify the cheapest flight for a trip.
Plus, there are tools to automate the process a bit. You can stay in the same place to check out hotels and car rentals at your destination as well.
Search results on Momondo include almost all major airlines (with the exception of Southwest, as they are special), making it easy to make price comparisons. While the lowest prices are usually displayed first, it’s not always the case – especially if the best deal includes inconveniences like super-long layovers or changes of airport.
If you like the looks of a specific flight or route but don’t like the fare, then set price drop alerts to be notified as soon as it changes. That’s totally free, and similar in function to sites like Going. When it’s time to actually get your tickets booked, be sure to go to the airline’s website, and not through an online travel agency – it will make your life easier, plus earn you airline miles.
9. Skyscanner
Skyscanner is another popular travel search engine that retrieves flight prices from many airlines with a single search. Like Momondo, this is a great option if you already have a destination in mind and don’t need the endless possibilities that Going offers.
Even before selecting a departure date, Skyscanner shows you a beautiful color-coded calendar that helps you choose a day that there’s a good deal. If your travel dates are even more flexible, switch to the alternative view to easily identify the cheapest month. It’s easy to set alerts for price changes.
You can also search for rental cars and hotels on Skyscanner. Remember that when you’re actually booking flights, hotels, or cars, it’s always better to go to the company’s website – the price is almost always exactly the same, if not close enough.
See Related: Skyscanner vs Hopper: What is the Difference?
10. Google Flights
Last but definitely not least is Google Flights, the tool that sites like Going will use to find the discount airfares they send out. People love Google Flights for its simplicity, user-friendliness, and wide range of tools during the search process.
The “Explore” function of Google Flights is almost like a real-time report of cheap flights to popular destinations around you, nicely displayed with prices on a map. Finding cheap flights with your own dates and destinations is effortless!
Round-trip prices appear on the calendar even before you start the search. On the results page, there are more ways to visualize the cheapest dates, including a price graph and a date grid.
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Woodrow is a travel writer who wants to do and see just about everything. He’s been to 40+ countries, all 50 US states plus Puerto Rico and the USVI, and is currently living in France and exploring Europe. Woodrow is an expert in travel hacking, finding bargain flights, and coined the term “upgrade engineering” referring to his talent to upgrade simple hotel room bookings into suite stays. Woodrow loves SCUBA diving, fishing, and all things aviation.
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