Flight finder websites are the way that I score almost ALL of my deals on airlines.
These were a pivotal part in my figuring out how to travel for cheap, because airfare was BY FAR the most expensive part of the trip for my family.
And it was the number one reason we felt that we couldn’t afford to travel. A trip to Europe would cost us near $7000, but with these flight finder sites we spent only $1200 on airfare to Paris earlier this year.
Flight finder websites are different than the discount flight booking sites like Kayak, Momondo, Google Flights and SkyScanner. These finder websites don’t actually offer flights to book, they just alert you when a VERY good deal comes up and tell you how to find them on other sites.
These deals aren’t just about saving $50-100 like you might find on Expedia.
They are about saving $100s or even $1000 on EACH ticket.
The deals are so good you can usually buy 2 (or even 3) tickets for the price of one ticket at normal price. And that is not even including the even better deals you can get from the mistake fares they show you. I’ve seen flights over $1000 be listed for $190 because of a mistake fare.
The best part…. ALL OF THESE SITES ARE FREE. Yep. Free.
You can get alerts for shockingly good flight deals for free.
And the best part is that the flight finder sites do all the heavy lifting for you.
You don’t have to be constantly monitoring online to find a good deal. They send it to you.
All these sites send SO MANY great flight deals that you shouldn’t worry if you can’t go for the times that a specific deal is available. Unless it’s a mistake fare, they will find a similar deal again for you later!
Several have a premium membership or charge after a trial is over, but even these are 100% worth it. The cost for premium memberships is usually less than $4 a month and get you the very best deals. It pays for itself many times over when you buy just one ticket.
And you do not need to have multiple accounts to get the deals for each family member. Since the flight finder just show you were the deals are and how to book them, you can buy as many as you need!
Scott’s Cheap Flights
Flight finder with shocking good discounts - my personal fav!
https://scottscheapflights.com/
The moto on the home page is “Save up to 90% on international flights”. 90%!!!
One of my friends who used to be a flight attendant uses this and she is used to flying for free! They have over 1.6 MILLION users worldwide.
They say that the average person saves $550 per ticket. But I have seen deals MUCH better than that.
Image from Scott’s Cheap Flights
This flight finder allows you to set departure cities that are nearby to you and sends you email alerts when they find good deals from those airports. Or alerts from other major US cities, like New York, Chicago or LA, where the most deals fly out of.
Scott’s Cheap Flights used to only do international deals (other than the occasional Hawaii/Alaska for premium members). And by focusing on that they are able to find some amazing flight prices. (This is one of the reasons that their average saving is so much higher than other sites because there is more room for savings on international tickets than on domestic ones.)
But they have recently started offering domestic flight deals too, but only in premium and from select cities (about 35 different ones right now).
What is great is that they also send great instructions with each email so you know everything you need in order to book your flight for that price. Including:
• where the flight is to
• what airports you can depart from
• very accurate estimate of how much a ticket will be
• what months the deal is for
• if the flights are nonstop or multiple segments
• how long they expect the deal to last for
• how to book the flight
Image from Scott’s Cheap Flights
All this is 100% FREE.
There is a premium membership, but if there is no way you can afford it or you want to test it out before committing, don’t worry. The free flight finder membership will still get you all over the world for cheap.
That being said, I have a premium membership and it is so cheap I think it is great value. It’s $49/year, which ends up being about $4 a month, and more than pays for itself in one flight for one person. I honestly would probably pay over $200/year because of how much money it will save you.
Use my link to get your first month of premium free AND 10% off!
With premium flight finder membership you get alerts for mistake fares (which is going to be the crazy cheap flights), flight alerts to Alaska and Hawaii, deals during peak season like Christmas and New Years, and the very best deals they find.
This is how I flow to Europe and usually spend less than $400!
Secret Flying
Always 100% free flight finder that also finds hotels!
Secret Flying is a great flight finder because it allows you to both manually search for flights AND sends auto alerts on great deals.
I like to also use them as a searching tool when I’m looking for flights myself because you can set your departure city and look for the best deals by selecting “any destination” and “anytime”. I talk more about this in the Ultimate Secret to Flying for Cheap.
When you sign up for the 100% FREE MEMBERSHIP, it allows you set departure cities that are near you to send you alerts about.
But I loved that you can choose to be alerted for all mistake fares also! That way when they find a deal near you, OR a can’t-miss-this deal you’ll get an alert.
They also have an app that makes it easy so set up what deals you want to be subscribed to.
There are A LOT of domestic flights available on this site and lets you look at flight deals to truly anywhere.
Also, they find hotel deals and mistake fares for you. I have seen 5-star resorts for less than $10/night!
Deal Ray
The flight finder that sends deals right to your phone
Deal Ray users save an average of $430 per flight, and this adds up to A LOT more when you’re buying for a family.
What is unique about them is that they send you alerts via text, meaning that you can act on them incredibly fast to get the cheapest price possible. Some of these really great deals can only last a few hours so the fact that they get you the info so quickly is incredibly helpful.
Deal Ray doesn’t send daily deals, just the best ones. So, if you get easily overwhelmed by a lot of emails or messages this might be a great feature for you.
Technically only the free first month is free, it’s $9.99/month after that. But they promise a no hassle cancellation and have no problem if you cancel before you get charged for the first month if it isn’t for you.
There is also a great referral program. Any time you refer a friend their free month is a free month for you so if you have a lot of friends, you could easily get a longer-term free membership.
Thrifty Traveler
Flight finder with personal FREE credit card advice
There are kind of two different companies at play here:
1. https://thriftytraveler.com/
2. https://thriftytraveler.com/premium
The regular website is free and does mostly domestic deals. But they also have great articles on how to save on flights and use credit cards to save.
For premium, it’s only $40/year (that’s about $3/month). Like Scott’s Cheap Flights, I think that this is absurdly cheap and would definitely pay WAY more than this. *shhh, don’t tell them that* They also offer a free 14 day trial.
Read more about how it works.
They also offer a 100-day money back guarantee. So technically if you find it’s not right for you, you could get your money back.
They send out about 40 alerts to members a month and the average flight savings is $250, meaning if you only buy one flight ever, you cover the price of over 6 years of membership.
They also only focus on international, Hawaii and Alaska deals. Which means that they are phenomenal about getting you far places because it’s all they do!
The email alerts are similar to Scott’s Cheap Flights and give you info about:
• where the deal is to
• airports you can fly out of
• the estimated price of tickets
• the airlines you can fly
• if there are any extra ways to save money by booking a specific way
Premium also offers FREE travel credit card consulting, that is completely geared towards you and your individual travel goals.
This is an AMAZING service and on its own worth more than $40/year. It also means that you have one on one help to learn how you personally can make a plan to reach your travel goals.
They will teach you what card is best for you, how to earn the most points and how to redeem them the best way possible. And that, my friends, is how to truly fly for free.
Bonus Tips to Save Even More
Remember that these sites don’t actually do any of the booking for you, so have to do a little leg work. But this is actually a good thing because it allows you to save even MORE money.
1. Use saving extensions like Wikibuy or Paribus that search coupon codes for you for extra savings.
2. You may be able to book on sites like Expedia after you find the deals to get reward points that you then can redeem for free flights!
3. You can sometimes choose between a few different airlines so that you earn the most points. Both directly through the airline, OR earn even more points if you have that airline’s credit card and redeem for free flights later.
Have you ever used any of these sites before? What kind of deals on flight have you found?
