Going vs Dollar Flight Club vs Thrifty Traveler: Which Flight Deal Service Is Worth It in 2026?

Updated June 2026 | 5 min read

The three services at a glance

I have booked error fares to Europe for under $200 and to Asia for under $350, and almost all of them started as an email from a flight deal service. After paying for these subscriptions for years, the honest truth is that they are not interchangeable: one is the best value, one is the one points people should pay for, and one I would not renew. Here is how Going, Thrifty Traveler, and Dollar Flight Club actually compare in 2026.

How flight deal services actually work

All three do the same basic thing. A team (and increasingly some software) watches fares out of the airports you select, and when something drops far below normal, you get an email or a text. The deal might be a deliberate airline sale, a mistake fare priced 40 to 80 percent below normal, or an award-seat sweet spot if the service tracks points. You book it yourself, directly with the airline. What separates the services is which airports they watch, whether they track points as well as cash, and how aggressively they price their tiers.

Going: the best all-around value

Going (the rebrand of Scott’s Cheap Flights) is the service I have paid for the longest, and it is the one I recommend to most people. The Premium tier is $49 a year and covers domestic and international economy deals out of more than 200 US airports, including mistake fares. There is a free tier, but it is heavily clipped: domestic only, a handful of airports, and the good stuff stripped out. Going has over 2 million members and claims an average of $550 saved on an international economy ticket, which roughly matches my own experience (I have saved well over $2,000 through their alerts in the last two years).

What I like about Going is the curation. The deals are human-vetted, they skip the bottom-tier budget carriers, and the email tells you the dates and the booking link without burying it. The catch: the points and miles alerts are an afterthought. They exist on Premium for economy and on the $199 Elite tier for premium cabins, but they are sparse compared to a service built around awards. If you only fly economy and pay cash, Going Premium is the easy pick.

Thrifty Traveler: the one to pair with points

Thrifty Traveler is the service I pair with Going, and it is the one to buy if you use points and miles. Award alerts are part of the base Premium tier rather than a pricey upgrade, which is the whole reason it exists. It covers more departure cities than the others (over 200 across the US and Canada, which is the only service here that includes Canadian airports), and business and first class cash deals come standard rather than behind an Elite paywall.

The downside is the price. Premium went up to $129.99 a year in March 2026 (from $99.99), so it is now the most expensive of the three. Existing subscribers were grandfathered in at the old rate, which is a nice touch but does not help a new sign-up. There is a 100-day money-back guarantee for first-timers, so the risk of trying it is low. If you transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards or hoard airline miles the way I do, the award alerts alone pay for the subscription the first time you catch a business-class seat at a saver price.

Dollar Flight Club: cheaper, with real tradeoffs

Dollar Flight Club is the one I would skip, and I want to be specific about why rather than just ranking it last. On paper it looks competitive: Premium is $69 a year, Premium Plus+ is $99 and adds business class deals plus text alerts, and the company claims 3.5 million members. But it sends no points or miles alerts at any tier, it covers far fewer departure airports than Going or Thrifty Traveler (around 65, versus 200-plus each), and the deals are frequently the same ones you could find free elsewhere.

The bigger issue is the billing. Dollar Flight Club has a documented pattern of complaints on the Better Business Bureau and Trustpilot about auto-renewal charges with no warning, refunds denied after timely cancellation, and cancellation links that simply do not work. (The BBB lists more than 100 complaints over three years, the largest single category, close to half, about billing.) That is the kind of friction that turns a $69 subscription into a fight with your credit card company, and it is why a slightly cheaper entry price is not worth it here. If you want to try a budget option, the free Going tier costs nothing and carries none of that risk.

Which one should you pick?

Pick Going Premium ($49) if you fly mostly economy, pay cash, and want the best return for the lowest spend. It is the default I would hand almost anyone, and it is what I have personally kept the longest.

Pick Thrifty Traveler Premium ($129.99) if you book with points and miles, want premium cabin alerts without an Elite upsell, or fly out of a smaller or Canadian airport. The award alerts are the reason to pay more.

Pick Dollar Flight Club only if your home airport is one of the roughly 65 it covers, you only care about economy cash fares, and you are willing to watch your statements for surprise renewals. For most people the free Going tier is a safer cheap option.

What I actually run: the free Going tier feeding me everyday deals, plus paid Thrifty Traveler for the award alerts. If you want the mechanics of catching and booking a mistake fare before it disappears, I wrote that up separately in my guide to how to find error fares and flight deals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a paid flight deal service actually worth the money?

For most travelers, yes, if you take even one trip a year off the back of it. Going’s $49 Premium pays for itself the first time you save a few hundred dollars on an international ticket, and I have cleared well over $2,000 in savings through it in two years. The exception is if your home airport is poorly covered or your dates are rigid, in which case the alerts rarely line up with when you can actually go.

Which service is best for points and miles?

Thrifty Traveler. It is the only one of the three that includes award alerts in its base paid tier rather than treating them as an upgrade, and it sends both cash and miles deals. Going has points alerts but they are thin, and Dollar Flight Club sends none at all.

Do I need to pay, or is the free tier enough?

The free tiers are real but limited, usually domestic only with fewer airports and the best deals held back. Free Going is a genuinely useful trickle and a fine way to test whether the alerts match your travel. If you find yourself booking off them, the $49 Premium upgrade is the single best-value paid option here.

Why not just use Dollar Flight Club since it is cheaper to start?

Two reasons: it sends no points or miles alerts and covers far fewer airports than the others, and it has a well-documented billing-complaint problem (auto-renewals, denied refunds, broken cancellation links) on the BBB and Trustpilot. A cheap subscription stops being cheap if you have to dispute the charge. The free Going tier is the lower-risk way to start for nothing.

Plan your own trip: guides I actually use

Cards, lounges & insurance:

• Best Airport Lounges I Have Actually Used — From Changi to Istanbul
• Is Priority Pass Worth It in 2026 — My Honest Review After 15 Airports
• Best Travel Credit Cards for 2026: The Cards I Actually Use and Why
• Best Travel Insurance for 2026: What I Actually Recommend After 15 International Trips
• The Credit Card Points Strategy That Funded $15,000 of Travel

Finding cheap flights:

• When to Book Flights by Region — The Booking Windows That Actually Save Money
• How to Find Error Fares and Flight Deals — The Services I Actually Use
• Google Flights vs Skyscanner vs Momondo — Which Actually Finds the Cheapest Flights

Staying connected abroad:

• Best VPN for Travel 2026 — NordVPN vs Surfshark and Why You Need One
• Best eSIM for Travel 2026 — Holafly vs Airalo vs Nomad

Travel gear I actually use:

• Best Portable Chargers for Travel in 2026: Which Size You Actually Need
• My Exact Travel Tech Setup After 15 International Trips
• Best Noise-Canceling Headphones for Travel in 2026: Tested on 40+ Flights
• Best Travel Backpacks for 2026: The 5 I Have Actually Used
• Phone Photography Tips for Travel: How to Take Great Photos With Just Your iPhone

Affiliate disclosure: This post contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you. SafetyWing, Skyscanner, Airalo, Booking.com. The flight deal services themselves are not affiliate links; my ranking is based on what I actually pay for.

Written by Jenna Fattah

I have visited 25+ countries across 6 continents, attended 7 Formula 1 races, and spent 4 years writing about what actually works and what I would do differently. Every recommendation on this site comes from trips I planned and paid for myself. Read more about me