When it comes to air travel, everyone’s looking for the holy grail: Cheap flights. There are a ton of apps and sites out there to help you find great deals in the sky, but one we hadn’t tried until now is Secret Flying.
Secret Flying is a membership-only app run by a cadre of travel enthusiasts bent on doing one thing well: finding you cheap airfare.
The travel site was recently brought to our attention as a potential game-changing way to find affordable fares. Similar to Google Flights, you can’t book directly on the app — it’s main function is spotlighting the hottest destinations available for the cheapest prices. According to their FAQ, “We simply tell you when a cheap flight exists.” Hotel deals are available, as well.
The ‘Secret’ is out: This app has a lot of cheap flights
- $1.99 a month: The Pro option has customized deals page, advanced search tools
- $3.99 a month: Elite features include airfare deals sent to your phone as mobile alerts
- $9.99 a month: Ultimate features the ability to make flight requests and a fuel dumping tool
To give you an idea of the types of deals behind Secret Flying’s paywall, I punched on some flights and this $189 Atlanta-to-Portland flight is just one of the great offers that came up:
Secret Flying has some great deals
No, they really have some great deals
I kept scrolling and the app kept showing me deals out of Atlanta. Some of them were pretty amazing.
You don’t have to guess which dates are available
Another thing I like about Secret Flying’s interface is that you don’t have to wonder which dates are eligible and which aren’t. They’re all displayed.
Secret Flying shows you the advertised price of cheap airfare
The interface takes all the mystery out of searching for cheap flights by taking you to a page that has everything you need to know before you book, including a link to the particular airline or travel site offering the deal.
Secret Flying features ‘open-jaw’ flights
Secret Flying also features “open-jaw” flights, which means that many of the deals you’ll see will have return flights to a different airport than where it originated. The site says “open-jaw” flights are where the real savings are.
Secret Flying gives the following two examples as open-jaw flights:
Example 1:
Outgoing: NEW YORK – TOKYO
Incoming: TOKYO – BOSTON
Example 2:
Outgoing: CHICAGO – LONDON
Incoming: PARIS – CHICAGO
Obviously, taking an open-jaw flight will require some additional planning on your part, but it could well be worth it for the savings involved.
They take Flight Requests for select members
Secret Flying is so confident in its deal-finding capabilities that it has a Flight Request page, which is only available to its Ultimate members, the highest member tier.
Of the Flight Requests service, the site says, “Flight Requests can save you hundreds if you are a flexible with dates and cities. Simply submit your search criteria every 30 days and we will search every possible route/date combination.”
Secret Flying has a Fuel Dumping Tool
According to Secret Flying, fuel dumping is described as “intentionally pairing two separate flights on the same airfare ticket in the hope that the fuel surcharge component of the main, more-expensive flight is either partially or fully dumped/eliminated.”
Fuel dumping flights can be found using the Fuel Dumping Tool, which is available only to Secret Flying’s Ultimate members.
Of course, as is usual with most airfare deals, the farther out you can book your flight, the better your chances of finding a killer deal. Secret Flying allows you to search by month, increasing the likelihood you’ll find an option during around the time you want to fly.
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