With travel ramping up again, everyone is looking for cheap flights. Many services on the internet alert their members of cheap flights to destinations all over the world. One of these services is Scott’s Cheap Flights, and we reviewed their premium subscription.
What is Scott’s Cheap Flights?
Scott’s Cheap Flights is a flight alert service that lets members know when there is discounted airfare. The flight alerts are departing from cities in the United States, and the destinations are all over the world, including domestic flights.
Scott Keyes created Scott’s cheap flights after he flew roundtrip from New York to Milan, Italy, on a $130 mistake fare. His friends and family wanted to know how he found it, and they wanted to know when he found the next cheap flight. Now, Scott’s Cheap Flights has more than two million members who receive alerts about cheap flights.
Scott and his team look for flight deals all day long for their members. These fares can be huge discounts that airlines put out to fill flights. They can also be mistake fares that airlines do not mean to release, but they do by accident since they cannot monitor all their fares for every single flight they sell seats for.
The service offers two memberships: free and premium. The free membership only requires an email address, but paying for the premium service will get you up to five times more deals.
How does it work?
When Scott and his team find a cheap flight, they email their members an alert. The alert includes the departure airports, the destination, the low price (and the normal price for comparison), and how long they expect the deal to last.
When you sign up for either membership, you will pick your departure airports. You can pick as many as you want, and the more you choose, the more deals you will get. Whenever there is a deal from any of your departure airports, you will receive an alert deal with all the information you need to book the flight.
After receiving the alert, you will be directed to Google Flights, where you can see the flights, choose your dates, and see what airlines are included. After that, you will be able to book your flights. Scott’s Cheap Flights alerts you of the deals, but you will need to book with the airline that you are flying.
Scott’s Cheap Flights only includes departure airports in the United States. If you are in Canada and are looking for a cheap flight service, you can try Matt’s Flights. Read the Matt’s Flights Review for more information.
Keep in mind that you will not be able to choose the destinations that the flight deals are for. Since flight prices are always changing, the destinations with cheap flights are random and cannot be predicted, so if you are looking to fly to a specific destination or on specific dates, you may or may not find the alerts helpful.
They are best for people with flexibility in their dates and are not picky in the places that they travel to. Alerts include a destination guide, so you may find a place you want to go that you were not previously aware of.
How much is the Premium Membership?
Scott’s Cheap Flights’ Premium Membership costs $49 per year. Signing up for the premium membership has a few benefits over the free membership. First, the premium membership will get you up to five times more flight deals than the free membership. The number of alerts you get will vary by week, but it will always be higher than the number of deals sent to free members.
Additionally, only premium members get domestic deals within the United States. All members will get international flight deals, but some of them only go to premium members. Premium members get the best deals, including holidays, summer, and the most popular flights that are never discounted.
Since the premium subscription only costs $49 per year, the cost will pay for itself when you book your first discounted flight. The flights that you receive alerts for can be discounted up to 90%, so you save a lot of money.
While free subscribers get good deals too, premium members get the best deals and the cheapest deals, so you can easily make up the annual subscription fee. If you plan on booking two or more trips from the flight alerts, there is no question that you should have a premium subscription.
Scott’s Bestie Test
Scott’s Cheap Flights does not send every cheap flight that they find. They follow a set of rules that they call the Besties Test, meaning that they only send deals to their members if they would also recommend them to their best friend.
These are the five rules that a deal must follow for it to be sent out:
- Cheap fare: a big discount from typical prices
- Good routing: not too many stops if not nonstop, and no long layovers
- Convenient layovers: short layovers or layovers that offer a daytime city tour
- Good airline: no airlines with iffy reviews
- Not last-minute: there can be last-minute dates, but the deal will not only have last-minute flights.
These five rules are guaranteed to be true for every deal, so you know you are not spending half your trip sitting in an airport or visiting four separate airports before you even reach your destination.
Scott’s Guides
In addition to helping you find cheap flights, Scott’s website also has travel guides that cover a wide variety of topics related to travel. There are guides to help you book flights, guides to airlines and airports, and layover guides in keeping with the flight theme.
The air travel guides will help you maximize your travel time by benefiting from layovers, finding the best places to wait in different airports, and book cheap flights even if there are not currently any alerts you are interested in.
In addition to flight guides, some guides will help you plan your trip with destination guides, visa guides, and information for traveling during the holidays. These guides will make your trip planning easier and help you prepare to travel so you can enjoy your trip stress-free.
Finally, a section full of other travel tips and tricks will help you on all your future trips. If you want even more tips to help you travel, especially if you want to travel on a budget, check out these 28 tips to save you money on your next trip.
Is Scott’s Cheap Flights Premium Worth It?
Yes, a premium membership for Scott’s Cheap Flights is worth it if you plan on booking at least one flight through their site. The discounts are big enough that you will easily make up for the annual fee with one cheap flight, and any others are a bonus.
