Best Flight Deal Alert Services Compared

Flight deal alert services have become essential tools for budget-conscious travelers. Instead of spending hours searching for cheap flights, these services do the heavy lifting by monitoring fares from your preferred departure airports and sending you notifications when prices drop significantly. The challenge is figuring out which service actually delivers the best deals for your travel style.

We have tested and compared the most popular flight deal alert services available in 2026 to help you decide where to spend your money and attention.

What Makes a Good Flight Deal Alert Service?

Before diving into individual services, it helps to understand what separates a great alert service from a mediocre one. The best services share several characteristics.

Speed is paramount. A deal that was valid an hour ago might be gone now. The best services detect and send alerts within minutes of a fare drop. Accuracy matters because nobody wants to click through to a deal only to find the price has already changed or the fare requires impossible routing. Coverage refers to how many departure airports and destinations the service monitors. Personalization is the ability to filter alerts based on your home airport, preferred destinations, travel dates, and cabin class. Finally, value is whether the deals you receive justify the subscription cost.

Going (Formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights)

Going is arguably the most well-known flight deal alert service, and for good reason. Founded by Scott Keyes, the service has been finding cheap flights since 2015 and has grown into a comprehensive deal-finding operation with a team of fare analysts.

Free tier: Going offers a limited free plan that sends a small selection of deals from your chosen departure airports. You will get a taste of what the service offers, but the best deals are reserved for paying members.

Premium tier ($49/year): This is where Going becomes genuinely useful. Premium members receive all domestic and international economy deals, including error fares, mistake fares, and flash sales. You can set up to five departure airports and receive deals via email or push notifications.

Elite tier ($199/year): The elite plan adds business and first class deals, peak season fares, and access to the full deal archive. If you fly business class even once per year, a single deal could pay for the subscription many times over.

Strengths: Going’s editorial team manually verifies every deal before it goes out, which means fewer dead links and expired fares. Their email alerts include helpful context about the deal, including sample dates, how to book, and how the price compares to normal fares. The mobile app has improved significantly and now supports real-time push notifications.

Weaknesses: Going focuses primarily on US departure cities. International travelers outside the US will find fewer relevant deals. The free tier is quite limited and serves more as a teaser than a practical tool.

Matt’s Flights

Matt’s Flights has carved out a loyal following by focusing on what matters most: finding genuinely cheap fares quickly.

Free tier: Provides a limited number of deals per week, which is enough to see if the service suits your needs.

Premium tier ($49.99/year): Unlocks all deals including domestic, international, business class, and error fares. You can customize departure airports and receive alerts through email and the mobile app.

Strengths: Matt’s Flights tends to be slightly faster than some competitors at catching short-lived deals. The alerts are clean and easy to act on, with direct links to booking. The service also includes weekend getaway deals, which are great for spontaneous short trips.

Weaknesses: The deal volume can be lower than Going for some departure airports, particularly smaller regional airports. The business class deals are included in the standard premium tier, which is a plus, but the overall coverage for premium cabin deals is not as deep as Going’s Elite plan.

Thrifty Traveler Premium

Thrifty Traveler has expanded beyond just flight deals to become a broader travel deals platform, but their flight alerts remain the core product.

Free tier: Basic deal alerts with limited frequency.

Premium tier ($79.99/year): Full access to all flight deals plus points and miles deal alerts. This is a notable differentiator because Thrifty Traveler actively looks for award flight availability and transfer bonus opportunities that other services ignore.

Premium+ tier ($99.99/year): Adds international premium cabin deals and exclusive limited-availability fares.

Strengths: The inclusion of points and miles deals makes Thrifty Traveler uniquely valuable for travel hackers who use credit card points. If you hold transferable points currencies like Chase Ultimate Rewards or Amex Membership Rewards, the award alerts alone can justify the subscription. The service also covers Canadian departure cities, which many competitors overlook.

Weaknesses: The higher price point puts it above Going and Matt’s Flights for the base premium tier. Some users report that deal alerts arrive slightly later than competitors, which can be an issue for the most time-sensitive fares.

Google Flights Price Tracking

Google Flights is not a deal alert service in the traditional sense, but its price tracking feature is a powerful free tool that deserves mention in any comparison.

Price: Completely free.

How it works: Search for a specific route and date range on Google Flights, then toggle the price tracking option. Google will email you when prices change significantly for that specific search. You can also use the Explore feature to browse fares from your airport to destinations worldwide, sorted by price.

Strengths: The price data is pulled directly from airline and OTA inventory, so it is highly accurate. The Explore map is excellent for flexible travelers who care more about finding the cheapest destination than going to a specific place. There is no subscription, no premium tier, and no limitations on the number of routes you can track.

Weaknesses: Google Flights only tracks routes you have specifically searched for. It does not proactively scan the entire fare landscape for anomalies the way dedicated deal services do. You will miss error fares and flash sales on routes you were not already monitoring. The alerts can also be delayed compared to dedicated services.

Fare Drop

Fare Drop takes a different approach by combining deal alerts with a fare prediction engine that tries to tell you the best time to buy.

Free tier: Limited alerts and basic price predictions.

Premium tier ($39.99/year): Full deal alerts, advanced price predictions, and the ability to set specific route watches with price thresholds.

Strengths: The price prediction feature is genuinely useful for travelers who have fixed travel dates and want to know whether to buy now or wait. The route watch feature lets you set a target price, and the service will only alert you when that specific route drops below your threshold. This is great for reducing alert fatigue.

Weaknesses: The deal discovery volume is lower than Going or Matt’s Flights. The prediction engine, while helpful, is not always accurate since airline pricing algorithms are inherently unpredictable. Fare Drop works best as a supplement to a primary deal alert service rather than a standalone solution.

Secret Flying

Secret Flying is a free, community-driven deal site that has been a staple of the error fare world for years.

Price: Free (ad-supported).

How it works: The Secret Flying team and community post deals as they find them on the website and social media channels. You browse the site or follow their social accounts to catch deals.

Strengths: Completely free with no premium tier required. Secret Flying often catches error fares and mistake fares faster than any paid service because their community is enormous and constantly scanning. Their global coverage is excellent, with deals from departure cities around the world, not just the US. The X (Twitter) account and Telegram channel are among the fastest sources for error fare alerts anywhere.

Weaknesses: There is no personalization. You see every deal from every departure city, which means a lot of noise if you only fly from one or two airports. The website has a lot of advertising. There is no email alert system tailored to your preferences, so you need to actively monitor the site or social feeds.

How to Choose the Right Service

The best flight deal alert service for you depends on how you travel.

If you are a casual traveler who takes one or two trips a year and flies economy, Going’s Premium plan or Matt’s Flights Premium offers the best balance of price and deal quality. Either one will pay for itself with a single good deal.

If you are a points and miles enthusiast, Thrifty Traveler Premium is the strongest choice because of its award flight and transfer bonus alerts. Pair it with Google Flights price tracking for comprehensive coverage.

If you fly business or first class, Going’s Elite tier provides the deepest coverage of premium cabin deals. The $199 annual cost is trivial compared to the thousands you can save on a single business class fare.

If you want free options, combine Google Flights price tracking with Secret Flying’s social media feeds. This gives you personalized route monitoring plus broad error fare coverage without spending a dollar.

If you want maximum coverage, subscribe to one paid service and supplement it with Secret Flying and Google Flights. This layered approach ensures you catch deals from multiple sources.

Tips for Getting the Most From Deal Alerts

Whichever service you choose, a few practices will help you convert more alerts into actual trips. Keep your passport current at all times. Set up push notifications rather than relying solely on email. Have a credit card with good travel protections ready to book immediately. Be flexible with your dates, because the best deals rarely align with specific date requirements. And act fast, because the best fares disappear quickly.

Flight deal alert services have made cheap travel more accessible than ever. The right service, paired with quick action and flexible dates, can transform how much you pay to see the world.