Dollar Flight Club review: Site promises to alert you to flight deals — does it?

If you like to get alerts and notifications on great travel deals, you may want to join the Dollar Flight Club. The site bills itself as a way for you to save 60-90% off your next international or domestic flight.

I joined the Dollar Flight Club to test whether it would send me some great travel deals via email. In this article, I’m going to show you how the club works as well as what to expect from the site and app.

Dollar Flight Club review: Everything you need to know

I started my research by going to the founder, Jesse Neugarten, and asking him about the Dollar Flight Club. He says that he got the idea for the site in 2015 while he was traveling in Nepal and got stuck in a 7.8 earthquake.

Instead of shying away from travel, the harrowing experience bolstered his love for getting away. “Life is too precious and short not to,” he said over email.

“Experiencing and connecting with other cultures is the best way to grow as a human being.”

The ordeal also taught him that he had some growing to do.

A few weeks later, he’d travel hacked his way to a round trip flight from New York City to Stockholm for $210. Then he went to Paris, London and other places.

Soon, friends and family were asking him to find them travel deals and “Dollar Flight Club was born,” he said.

What is Dollar Flight Club?

Dollar Flight Club is a streamlined travel search site that sends you deals based on the region or airport you designate as your “home.”

The site’s strengths lie in its ability to send instant alerts to your email so that you can jump on deals right away.

The site has a free and paid version, which we’ll get into later. No matter which version you choose, you can find some great travel deals stateside and abroad, including some affordable weekend getaways.

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Here’s how to join Dollar Flight Club

• Sign up for the site: You’ll need to enter your email and other personal info to join the site as a member.
• Pick your Departure Airport/Region: If you sign up for the free Basic service, it’s important that you select your correct “Departure Region.” Premium members have the option to select “Departure Airports.”
• Enable notifications: Set your phone or desktop to receive notifications so that you can see the latest travel deals.

What deals can you expect?

Once you’re ready to view the fares, you’ll see a mix of “fresh deals,” which are ones recently added to the site. You’ll also be able to see “past deals” that have already expired.

There are two types of deals you can expect in the Dollar Flight Club: International Deals and Domestic Getaways.

Here’s what you need to know about each category:

International Deals

Once you click on a fresh international deal, a card will pop up that shows you the flight details, including the price for round trip, standard fare and your projected savings.

What it won’t show you are the exact dates. Below the flight info, there’s an option to click on Google Flights to find the best fares.

Domestic Getaways

Domestic Getaways is another option you can toggle to so that you can find flight deals in the United States. It lets you see cheap flights over a three- or four-day period.

The getaways show not only destinations on sale, but the percentage you save if you book the flight.

When I tried the site, it showed me a $109 flight from Atlanta to Tampa that was three weeks away. As I clicked through, I found out that it was on Spirit Airlines.

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Do you have to pay for membership?

As we mentioned, Dollar Flight Club has two versions — a free product called Basic and a $40-a-year Premium service.

The differences between the free version and the paid version are pretty stark. Premium membership comes with way more deals than Basic.

With the free version, I didn’t find the Departure Region to be too useful. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, I was thinking the site would pull from regions around the South at least. But the first flight it showed me originated out of Boston, Massachusetts.

On the other hand, the Premium version correctly pulled deals that only departed from Atlanta.

The Premium version also offers partner perks, mistake fares, secret sales and support, among other things.

How do you book? 

I selected the flight to Tampa and clicked the “Book Now” button. It took me to travel search site SkyScanner.com to complete the transaction.

This means instead of buying the deal on Dollar Flight Club, you’ll have to purchase it on a flight aggregator or airline site.

In some cases, you’ll have to click through at least twice more to confirm if the airfare is still available.

The site tells you that flight availability varies by origin. It encourages you to “play” with the dates to find cheap fares.

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Conclusion

Dollar Flight Club does what it says it does: finds flight deals. But it doesn’t do it all. There are a lot of keystrokes you have to hit to complete the process.

The site allows you to find fares but you can’t book through it. It basically works in conjunction with sites like Google Flights, Momondo, Skiplagged and SkyScanner.com and on carrier websites. Those places are where you book the flights.

Dollar Flight Club: Pros and cons

Pros

Cons

• Site offers pro tips to help you find better deals
• Easy-to-use interface
• The app features guides and resource articles
• Premium members get a “Book Now” button

• Basic members aren’t able to book flights
• The Departure Region isn’t always the one you select
• You will see great deals, but you have to search to find the dates and other relevant information

Remember, if you’re the type of traveler who’s picky about which airline you fly, Dollar Flight Club may not reveal the airline until the tail end of the process.

That might irk some users. But if great deals on flights are your main thing, you’ll enjoy discovering weekend flights for cheap.

The cool thing is that once you sign up, you immediately get alerts for domestic and international deals like this:

While sites like this make it easier to find great flight deals, money expert Clark Howard says before you start the process you should know his #1 travel rule.

More Clark.com articles you may enjoy:

Costco vs. Sam’s Club credit cards comparison: Which is better?

You probably know that Team Clark is a huge fan of warehouse stores — and it only makes sense that we’d want to earn the most rewards from our credit cards when we shop at them.

Costco and Sam’s Club are the dominant players in the warehouse store world and they each have a co-branded credit card that offers cash back. Let’s take a look at these two products and see how they compare.

Comparing credit cards from Costco Wholesale and Sam’s Club

The Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi offers you a fantastic 4% cash back on gas purchases, including those at Costco (on up to $7,000 spent each year, 1% after that).

This is great because many cards that offer bonuses for gas purchases specifically exclude stores like Costco and Sam’s Club, which often have the lowest prices. You also get 3% cash back at restaurants and on eligible travel purchases worldwide.

Somewhat surprisingly, you only get 2% back at Costco stores and at Costco.com, and just 1% cash back elsewhere.

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of this card is that you only receive your cash back rewards once a year in February.

There’s no annual fee for this card with your paid Costco membership and no foreign transaction fees.

Synchrony Bank issues the Sam’s Club Mastercard, and it one-ups the Costco card by offering 5% back on all gas purchases (on up to $6,000 spent each year, 1% after that), including those at Sam’s Club. It won’t work at Costco because it’s a Mastercard and only Visa is accepted there.

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It also gives you 3% back on dining and travel purchases, but only 1% back everywhere else, including purchases at Sam’s Club.

As with the Costco card, you only receive your cash back rewards once a year in February, when they are automatically loaded to your membership account.

New accounts can earn a $45 statement credit when making a purchase of at least $45 the day you open the account (offer ends June 15, 2019). There’s no annual fee for this card and no foreign transaction fees.

Costco Anywhere Visa® Card By Citi

Sam’s Club® Mastercard®

Rewards

• 4% cash back on gas
• 3% at restaurants and travel
• 2% at Costco
• 1% elsewhere

• 5% cash back on gas
• 3% on travel and dining
• 1% elsewhere

Annual fee None, with paid Costco membership None Advantages 4% cash back at gas stations and excellent returns elsewhere High rates of cash back on gas, travel and dining Drawbacks

• No sign-up bonus
• Cash back is only offered as an annual credit each February and must be redeemed in-store

• Minimal sign-up bonus
• Mediocre cash back for shopping at Sam’s Club and other non-bonus spending
• Cash back is only offered each February, when it is loaded to your membership account

Which one is better?

These cards have a lot of similarities. They both offer excellent rewards for gas purchases and 3% back on travel and dining. These cards both have no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees.

Still, both of these cards have their strengths and weaknesses. The Costco Anywhere Visa offers 2% cash back for Costco purchases, while the Sam’s Club Mastercard surprisingly only offers 1% cash back at Sam’s Club.

Yet the Sam’s Club card offers slightly better cash back on gas — 5% compared to 4% — as well as the initial $45 statement credit when you sign up and make a $45 purchase the same day.

With both cards, if you cancel your card for any reason before February, you’ll never receive the cash back you’ve earned the previous year.

Final thought

Ultimately, these cards are so similar that your decision will likely depend on which store you prefer. Since neither credit card has a clear advantage, it’s hard to see fans of one switching allegiances just to gain a modest advantage on gas or in-store purchases.

In the extremely competitive fields of both credit cards and warehouse stores, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this race is too close to call.

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Sam’s Club Mastercard review: Great rewards on gas, travel and dining

Review Summary: The Sam’s Club® Mastercard® offers a very high rate of cash back on gas, but much less so at Sam’s Club and for most other purchases.

Pros

Cons

• 5% cash back on most gas purchases
• 3% back on travel and dining
• No annual fee

• Only 1% cash back at Sam’s Club
• Bonus cash back on gas is limited to $6,000 a year and excludes supermarkets and other warehouse stores that sell gas
• Minimal sign-up bonus

How the Sam’s Club® Mastercard®credit card works

The Sam’s Club Mastercard has no annual fee with your paid Sam’s Club membership and can double as your membership card. This card can be used at Sam’s Club and anywhere else that accepts Mastercard. You earn cash back on your purchases, which automatically gets loaded to your membership account.

Sam’s Club Mastercard review: Table of contents

How to earn rewards 

With this card, you earn 5% cash back on your first $6,000 of gas purchased at U.S. gas stations. You also earn 3% cash back on all travel and dining purchases, and 1% cash back at Sam’s Club and on all other purchases. Just note that you can only earn a maximum of $5,000 in cash back rewards each year.