All About Going (Formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights)
After our London trip, I mentioned that we’d gotten our tickets much cheaper than normal through Scott’s Cheap Flights (it’s since been rebranded as “Going”).
If you’re unfamiliar with Scott’s Cheap Flights, it’s an email service that sends flight deals right to your inbox.
I was first introduced to Scott’s Cheap Flights by my mom who has been a subscriber for several years and in 2019 forwarded along $160 round-trip tickets to Hawaii. I happened to be sitting at my desk when the email came through, texted Bart at work who responded within seconds, and we had those flights booked within about ten minutes total (which was lucky because they sold out SO FAST).
So I’ve been a fan ever since.
I didn’t sign up for my own account until last year and now I’m fully hooked!
Here’s how it works:
Scott’s Cheap Flights
- Sign up for a free account. No credit card is necessary.
- Set your airport that you normally fly out from (you can choose up to 5 airports)
- Emails with deals come right to your inbox. They’ll tell what the normal price is so you know how much you’re saving and show you what airport it’s out of and what the time frame for the cheap tickets are.
When you get those emails, they’ll look like this:
I did the free plan for about six months and then, thanks to referrals, I got bumped up to the Premium plan and while there are definitely perks as a Premium member, I think you can get a LOT of value just with the free plan.
If you’re at all interested, I’d sign up for a free plan and then if you decide you want to upgrade, you can. (FYI: the Premium Plan for Scott’s Cheap Flights is $49 a year). You can also try out the Premium or Elite memberships for 14 days for free if you’d like.
Here are the main differences between a free (what they call a “Limited” membership) and a Premium plan:
- Premium members get better deals. Scott’s Cheap Flights say they save their best deals for Premium and Elite members, so you’re going to get better deals as a paid member than with the free ones.
- Premium members get MORE deals. As a free member, you’ll get some great deals, but you’ll get a lot MORE great deals as a premium member.
- Premium members get the deals earlier. Emails to premium members go out about 30 minutes before they go to free members, so if it’s a deal that will go fast (like that Hawaii one!), you’ll have more time to book it before it’s gone.
- Premium members get domestic deals too. Free memberships only get deals for cheap international flights, so if you also want cheap tickets in the US, you’ll want a Premium membership.
- Mistake fares are reserved for Premium members. If there are mistake fares (which are the golden ticket of cheap flights), you’ll get those as a Premium member.
- You can set 10 airports to see deals from. As a free member you get five airports.
Here are a few things I love about Scott’s Cheap Flights:
- They choose GOOD flights. They aren’t sending you ones with an awful layover or leaving at 2 a.m. or flying on an airline where you need to bring your own seatbelt and oxygen mask. They call it the Mom Test or the Bestie Test – if it’s not a flight they’d send to their BFF or put their mom on, they aren’t going to send it to you.
- You can look at deals on their site at any time! I love having the emails come through, but it’s also nice that you can log in to their site and see all the current flight deals in one place.
- If you refer a friend, you get a free month of Premium membership. Forward a deal to a friend or send them your link (you’ll find it in your account) and if they sign up – even just for a free membership – your account will automatically convert to a Premium Membership for a month and then return to your free membership when that month is up (or if you refer multiple friends, you’ll get multiple free months).
Have you used Scott’s Cheap Flights before? Any other questions about how it works? I’m happy to help!
This sounds worth looking into! Thanks for sharing! Can you share anything about seating? My husband is very tall and needs those rows that have more leg room. We have found generally with discounted flights that that type of seating is not available, so we stopped looking at services like this long ago.
You’re booking your own tickets (they just alert you to good prices), so it’d be the same as any other booking!
Thanks!
My husband is 6’9” and needs the room too! When you book the tickets you can choose to upgrade seats. You’re still booking directly through the airline. Scott’s cheap flights just let’s you know about the low fares! I love it!
I’m interested to know how cheap the flights get and how expensive they get while still being called cheap, from what you’ve seen.
Totally depends on the location – I’ve seen flights to LA for $30, flights to Hawaii from $165 and flights to the Maldives for $800. It’s based more on the normal price, rather than a flat rate.
What a great idea! I wish they serviced Canadian airports as well (hoping they will add them in the future).