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Traveling for less is one of the most satisfying things you can do to manage your finances. Money expert Clark Howard uses several tools to find cheap flights. One of the best ones is the Dollar Flight Club.
In this article, I’ll review some things to know about the Dollar Flight Club site including how it works, how to join, how to find flight deals and save money on travel in the process. I’ve used Dollar Flight Club since it launched in 2019 and have been receiving flight deals via email ever since.
Clark uses Dollar Flight Club’s travel alerts to check fares so that he can follow his #1 Travel Rule, which allows him to find affordable destinations across the world.
“What these services do is they give you alerts on special fare deals in coach and the front of the plane, or also premium economy,” Clark says. “Any fare category when a deal pops up, you get an alert. For a regular traveler, it can save you a lot of money.”
By checking the website and getting travel alerts via email from Dollar Flight Club, you may be able to save big on airfare. Here are some things to know before you sign up:
Dollar Flight Club is a subscription 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 also has guides, insider tips and articles on how to get low fares.
The site has a free version as well as two paid membership plans, which we’ll get into later. The paid versions — Premium and Premium Plus — unlock Partner Perks, which the site says, “get you member-only discounts up to 50% off so you save a ton of cash on products, services, and experiences for your next adventure.”
No matter which version you choose, you can find some great travel deals stateside and abroad, including some affordable weekend getaways.
Dollar Flight Club works by showing you flight deals from one or a few selected airports of your choosing. If you don’t have a Dollar Flight Club online account, signing up is the first thing you need to do to see flight deals.
Here’s the step-by-step process on how to sign up for Dollar Flight Club:
In reviewing the site, I found that the quickest way to find airfare for a bargain was to log in and click on “Flights >Flight Deals” in the menu in the top left corner.
In reviewing the site, I selected a round-trip flight from Atlanta to Willemstad, Netherlands for $356 (Wow!). With each flight, it shows you:
To book your flight, you’ll have to view it on either of the travel search sites SkyScanner.com or Google Flights. 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. Dollar Flight Club also encourages you to “play” with the dates to find cheap fares.
How much Dollar Flight Club costs depends on which membership you have and how much your selected flight costs. As I mentioned, the site has three versions — a free product, Premium and Premium Plus. (Premium originally cost $40 annually but it now has nearly doubled in price). Here’s how much Dollar Flight Club costs:
The Premium version comes with a two-week free trial for $1. To sign up for Premium Plus, you have to upgrade from Premium.
With the free version, I didn’t find the Departure Airport 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 time I logged in, it showed me a flight from Atlanta to Boston. Most recently, it showed me a trip to and from New Orleans.
You may find deals online advertising Dollar Flight Club’s Premium tier with a lifetime membership. The price may vary but it may save you some time and money when it comes to finding cheap fares.
Read up on whether Dollar Flight Club’s lifetime membership is worth it.
Once you’re ready to view the flights, you’ll see a mix of deals covering Economy and Premium Economy fares. The latter typically include wider seats with extra legroom and sometimes different menu and entertainment options, according to Skyscanner.com.
Unless you become a Premium Plus member, the Premium Economy flights will be “grayed out” (inaccessible) on the site.
Dollar Flight Club used to show you “fresh deals,” which were the latest bargains added to the site and “past deals” that had already expired. Now, it just shows you domestic and international deals all on one page. Depending on your membership tier, you may or may not be able to click through.
Here are a couple of deals I recently saw on Dollar Flight Club:
As a Premium member, I also saw a lot more deals to foreign cities than I did when I just had the free plan. One trip that caught my eye was a fare from Atlanta to Madrid for $538. Another deal I saw was a Premium fare from Atlanta to Paris for $564.
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.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Site offers pro tips to help you find better deals. | Free members see very limited number of deals. |
| Easy-to-use interface. | Free members can only see deals from one airport. |
| The site features guides and resource articles. | Premium version costs nearly double what it used to. |
| Shows both domestic and international deals. | Prices on booking sites are always a little higher than they on Dollar Flight Club website. |
When you consider the time it takes to find cheap flight deals online, Dollar Flight Club is worth it because it makes the search process easy
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, Clark says before you start the process you should know his #1 travel rule.
After a thorough review, I can say with confidence that Dollar Flight Club is a legit way to find cheap flights to domestic and international destinations.
Along with Google Fights and Going.com (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights), Dollar Flight Club is one of the resources Clark uses to find cheap flights.
Want to know about more tools to find cheap fares? Read our guide on how to save with Google Flights.
This post was last modified on May 30, 2023 8:19 am
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