How to save money on flights: Dollar Flight Club review


This post was brought to you in collaboration with Dollar Flight Club, but our opinions (which are based on personal experience) remain our own. We will never compromise the integrity of our commitment to our readers.

I grew up in a lower-middle-class family in Atlanta, so the idea of ​​traveling to exotic vacation destinations always seemed like a pipe dream to me.

Instead, I grew up camping in the Blue Ridge Mountainsvisiting the beaches of Georgia and Florida, and taking road trips to visit family in Tennessee and Virginia. Washington DC was the furthest trip my family has ever taken!

But when I was 12, I had the opportunity to spend several weeks touring Italy as a member of the Atlanta Children’s Choir.

That incredible trip (which culminated in singing for Pope John Paul II in Vatican City) opened my eyes to other countries and cultures for the first time, and instilled in me a deep love of travel that remains a driving force in my life today.

I have been a professional travel writer for over 25 years, but traveling abroad was out of my financial reach until I was in my 30s.

With prices on everything from gas and groceries to getaways on the rise, finding ways to save money on travel has become increasingly difficult for the average traveler.

Fortunately, my career in the travel industry has taught me a number of tips on how to find the best deals on flights, hotels, rental cars and more.

Today I’m going to share with you one of my favorite tips on how we save hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of dollars every time we book a trip!

READ MORE: How I fell in love with travel (and was blessed by the Pope)

Pool view at Sofitel Moorea Ia Ora, Tahiti, photograph by Mary Gabbett and Bret Love

How to save money on travel

Mary and I are very frugal by nature and are always looking for innovative ways to cut costs and live within our means.

Some of the best tips we’ve found on how to save money on travel come from your favorite consumer advocate, Clark Howard.

“My number one rule for travel is to shop for the deal first, then think about why you want to go there,” Howard says. “By following that simple rule, I’ve been able to visit every continent except Antarctica and every state except North Dakota. And all of this without spending a lot of money.”

For us, the biggest expense in travel is usually flights. And most major airlines are currently charging the highest prices the travel industry has seen in a long time.

Data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index shows that average airline ticket prices have increased by 25% over the past year. These recent fare increases, driven largely by consumer demand, are actually outpacing inflation.

But, like Clark Howard, we’ve been using the Dollar Flight Club flight deal alert service for years (since 2018), saving thousands of dollars on travel around the world.

Read on to learn all about the benefits of Dollar Flight Club, including how the service works, how to join for just $1, and how to find flight deals that will save you BIG money.

READ MORE: How to save money for travel

Posing with a mountain gorilla in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda
Posing with a mountain gorilla in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. Photo by Bret Love and Mary Gabbett

What is Dollar Flight Club?

Dollar Flight Club is a subscription-based service designed to help its more than 1 million members realize their dreams of budget travel by sending them the world’s best flight deals.

The company was founded by South African-born Jesse Neugarten, an avid world traveler who fell in love with the way connecting with other cultures helped him grow and evolve as a person.

After scoring a round-trip flight from New York to Stockholm for $210 in 2015, Neugarten’s friends and family began asking him to help them find better travel deals for themselves—and DFC was born!

Dollar Flight Club’s mission is to “make travel accessible to everyone by saving members $500 on every flight, ensuring they can experience new destinations and cultures every year.”

They save members money by sending them great flight deals based on the specific airport (or general region) they designate as “home.”

For example, while we typically fly out of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, we also look for flight deals at other major airports throughout the southeastern U.S.

We love that DFC sends instant alerts so you can take advantage of the best flight deals before they sell out. We also value their in-depth articles and expert advice on how to find the cheapest airfares possible.

To date, the company has served more than 1 million members in over 100 countries, saving them more than $50 million on flights to more than 500 different destinations around the world.

Try Dollar Flight Club for $1 and save $500 on every flight!

Napali Coast Sightseeing Tour in Kauai, Hawaii
Napali Coast, Kauai, photo by Bret Love and Mary Gabbett

How Dollar Flight Club works

Dollar Flight Club has a free version and two different paid membership plans, Premium and Premium Plus, which offer you exclusive member discounts of up to 50% off the cost of your flights.

To get started, go to the Dollar Flight Club Website and register for their service, entering your email and creating a password.

Next, you will need to select your preferred departure airport. If you sign up for the free service, you will choose just one. However, Premium members can choose up to 4 departure airports to receive flight offers.

We recommend enabling notifications on your phone or computer so you can see deals as soon as they become available. Some of the best flight deals we’ve gotten from DFC have come and gone in a matter of days!

You can also head directly to their website to search for deals. The quickest way to do this is to click on “Flights” and then “Flight Deals” in the top left corner of the DFC website menu.

READ MORE: Best New Travel Items for 2024

Bret Love and Allie Love at the waterfall in Ford's Terror of Alaska's Inside Passage
Bret and Allie Love in Ford’s The Terror of Alaska’s Inside Passage

Dollar Flight Club Membership Levels

Dollar Flight Club offers 3 different membership levels to choose from, each offering benefits commensurate with the price.

The basic version of DFC, which we launched many years ago, is completely free. It includes a limited number of domestic and international flight offers from a single departure airport of your choice.

DFC Premium costs $69 per year, but includes 5x more deals than the free version (including valuable error and secret fares), plus you can choose up to 4 departure airports.

Fans on a bigger budget can try the Premium Plus version, which costs $168 per year. It includes everything you get with Premium, plus additional offers on Business and Premium Economy flights.

We love the fact that you can try Dollar Flight Club Premium Membership for 2 weeks for just $1!

Please note that you must sign up for Premium before you can upgrade to the Premium Plus package.

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Us with rhinos in the Ol Pejeta reserve in Kenya
Bret (50 years old), Mary and Allie with white rhinos in Kenya

Our experience at Dollar Flight Club

We started subscribing to the Dollar Flight Club service about 6 years ago. Since then, we have used it several times and have saved an average of $500 on each flight we purchase.

It all started in the spring of 2018, when we began planning my 50th birthday getaway. Flights from Atlanta to Nairobi, Kenya At the end of June prices are usually around $1400-$1800, but we found a DFC offer for $900 round trip.

We (me, Mary and my then 16 year old daughter) had a unique 3 week experience. Kenya wildlife safariAnd saving between $1,500 and $2,700 on flights allowed us to splurge a little more on an unforgettable trip. Adventure in East Africa.

From that point on, we started building many of our trips around the amazing flight deals that DFC sent us.

Highlights included Mary’s birthday trip to the island of Kauai, Hawaii in 2019 (where we got $800-$900 flights for $450) and my daughter’s high school graduation trip to explore Alaska.

If you sign up for DFC’s Premium Service, their site will show you round-trip flight deals, the standard price for that flight, how much money you’re saving, other departure airports, and multiple travel dates to choose from.

Keep in mind that you’ll have to book your flight through a flight aggregator or airline website, but Dollar Flight Club saves you the time of having to search endlessly to find the best flight deals to your local airport.

Try DFC’s Premium Membership for two weeks for just $1 and you’ll soon understand why seasoned travel veterans and money-saving experts alike rave about their service. –by Bret Love; photos courtesy of Dollar Flight Club



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