Flight Deals 102: A.W.E.S.

When you’re shopping you have to know where to go to find the deals. This doesn’t change when it comes to travel. In Flight Deals 101 I mentioned using Google Flights to search across multiple airlines. It’s a great tool, but it’s not the only one I use. My approach to finding deals definitely reflects my thought process in that I never rely on any 1 particular option. My flight deal arsenal includes Apps, Websites, Email newsletters, and Social media accounts. A.W.E.S. if you will. I do the most and I know it, so I’m going to break it all the way down for you.

A is for Apps

My entire life is basically inside my phone. I’m a long time member of the cult of Google, and I’d probably be very confused without it. That said most of my deal searches are done on my phone at 1 in the morning when I should be sleeping. It’s easy when there are so many apps to help you find cheap flights. Here are my favorite apps for finding flight deals:

Hopper

If I had to pick a favorite app, I’d say Hopper is it. It’s an amazing app that does a few things that I really like. Like most apps you start by entering your departure and destination cities. You get a color coded calendar that gives you a bird’s eye view of the least expensive months/days for travel. From there you can select your desired travel dates and get the lowest price for those dates.

This is where it gets good; Hopper tells you (based on past pricing data) if it’s a good time to buy, or if you should wait. It also shows you price predictions, and tells you if non-stop flights are available at a good price. Last but certainly not least, Hopper gives you the option to watch the price and sends push notifications to tell you about pricing fluctuations.

Skyscanner

I love Skyscanner for it’s “Everywhere” destination search option. It’s great if you have set dates, but no location in mind. When you search it shows you destination options based on ticket prices. Like Hopper it allows you to save/watch flights. It also has the added benefit of letting you search for hotels and car rentals. It’s all-in-one like many other travel apps so it’s great if you’re a one stop shopper.

Momondo

I’ve found Momondo to be kind of hit or miss when it comes to finding cheap flights. It gets points for flexibility, and in some cases sheer foolishness. On the flexibility front it has an “Everywhere” destination option like Skyscanner. I like this feature better on Momondo since it’s laid out in map format which makes it easier for me to explore my options. It also gives a break down of cheapest, quickest, and best (combo of speed and price) options right at the top so you can easily focus on those things. It also includes a “Custom” option so you can cobble together your own flight plan if you’re so inclined.

Where it losses me is the fact that sometimes it automatically cobbles together flights to show you a good price. You can end up flying 2 or 3 different airlines and booking 2 or 3 separate tickets to get the price they show you. It’s not that actually mind this, but I can see it causing a lot of trouble if you aren’t paying close attention.

W is for Websites

When it comes to using websites for flight deals, my go to is Google flights. There are other sites I use and I’m sure you’ve heard of and use most of them. For the most part they all do the same thing, and in some cases they’re the same company. The differentiation comes in reward programs, airline miles and cash back options. I used to rely on these sites more than I do now. You could very well find deals there, but in my experience that’s not usually the case. Instead I find myself relying more on dedicated flight deal sites.

Dedicated Flight Deal Sites

There are a few dedicated deal sites that I really like. Generally these are more blog than search engine. I’ve learned that while these sites share a lot of the same deals, occasionally one will catch a deal that the others have missed. My go to’s are Secret Flying and The Flight Deal. I’m going to keep it real; I don’t visit the actual sites with any kind of regularity. Instead I rely on the last 2 things on this list. Their email newsletters, and their social media accounts.

E is for Email Newsletters

I have a dedicated email account strictly for travel related newsletters, alerts, and receipts. It keeps me sane since I usually get 3-5+ deal emails a day. If you’ve ever told me you want to go somewhere, and I say hold on for a minute…I’m checking that email account. You’re welcome!

For flight deals I subscribe to Secret Flying, The Flight Deal, Scott’s Cheap Flights, and occasionally Travel Noire will send flight deal notices as well. These emails usually come 1-2 times a day. It’s really easy to search a city in my inbox and pull up newsletters that have deals related to that city. I’ll breakdown why I get so many of these below.

Scott’s Cheap Flights

Scott’s Cheap Flights is amazing because it lets you pick your home airport. It also lets you select any other airports that you might fly from. This means you’re getting a more targeted set of deal notifications. You may receive multiple emails from Scott’s within the same day since their emails aren’t digest style like Secret Flying and The Flight Deal. Each email is dedicated to a single destination. They do offer a $49 Premium subscription option. They tout it as a way to get – Special Premium-only deals, Mistake fares/rare deals, and Peak season & holiday flights. I haven’t tried the paid service, but they do include teasers in your free emails. I usually spot those teaser deals in one of my other newsletters or on social media.

Secret Flying

Secret Flying sends out a digest style email once a day. You’ll get flight deals to/from various locations. Those fares range from it’s just a deal to oh yeah we’re pretty sure this is a mistake but try anyway. A couple of times a week you may receive 2 emails in a day, the second email is usually hotel deals (I believe you have to opt in for this). Again these deals range from okay a deal to we’re sure someone pressed a wrong thing. Secret Flying’s differentiator is definitely their social media game.

The Flight Deal

The Flight Deal, is truly the most no frills email option on this list. It’s a basic 1x/day digest style email. It also tends to include a small section of hotel deals. It’s great if you just want to find your deals and go.

Travel Noire

Travel Noire’s email newsletter is a grab bag. You never really know what all you might find in there. Typically it contains some of their recent articles, a bit of news if something crazy happened to a Black person while traveling, and occasionally they’ll call out a flight deal. I love the content mix that I get with TN. It makes it a lot easier for me to stay on top of what’s happening when I’m too busy to read up.

I don’t read all of these email newsletters every day. It’s still nice to have them available. It’s not that I get to travel that much, but I love helping other people who plan trips. I should probably go clean out that inbox now that I think about it.

S is for Social Media

Okay we’re at the end. I absolutely live for Secret Flying’s Facebook page. I also follow them and The Flight Deal on Twitter. The legit reason is that you see deals, before the newsletters go out. My reason is that Secret Flying’s Facebook also shares news. Said news is usually funny, and if not the comments make up for that. They also use images of rather goofy looking animals for some destinations, and because I’m silly I laugh at these. Of course the other sites I use have social media accounts, but a girl has to draw a line somewhere.

Now you have all of my “secret” flight deal sources. Sometimes I find deals this way, and sometimes I just search like a mad woman and stumble upon them. I’m rambling now, so let me get to my closing point. My point is that you don’t need magic to find a flight deal. You just have to know where to look, and when to do it. Are you in awe of A.W.E.S.? Do you have questions? If so, leave me a comment below.