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.
