Use this data tool to land the best price for your next flight.
The art of finding well-priced flights has evolved beyond random searches. Flight price alerts have emerged as a sophisticated tool for travelers seeking optimal booking times. These automated systems act as digital assistants, monitoring fare changes and notifying you when prices shift for your selected routes.
Pioneered by Kayak in 2006, price alerts serve as a data-driven approach to travel planning, delivering real-time updates on fare changes across flights, accommodations, and vehicle rentals.
How do flight price alerts work?
Price alert systems monitor specific flight parameters you select, including airports, dates, and carriers. The technology is really flexible: you can track anything from a single flight number to broader search criteria like month-long date ranges or multiple destination options. After you make your choices, the system then sends notifications when matching flights experience price changes.
How to Set Up Flight Price Alerts
While various platforms offer price tracking, they all require basic parameters such as departure point, destination, and travel dates. For travelers with exact plans, entering specific flight numbers allows precise tracking. Those with flexible schedules can input date ranges, enabling the system to identify optimal pricing windows.
Adaptability maximizes your chances of finding favorable fares. So consider expanding your search to include nearby airports and alternative dates. Multiple alert configurations help maintain awareness of various routing options.
A lesser-known strategy involves setting alerts for already-booked flights. Should prices decrease, many airlines allow rebooking at the lower rate, offering the difference as credit for future travel. (Note: Remember these credits typically expire within a year.)
The Best Flight Price Alert Services
Kayak
Kayak is a metasearch engine that scours multiple sites for the best deals in travel, from airfare to hotels to car rentals. The most common way to set up a flight price alert is to search for flights on the site or in the app—inputting your origin, destination, and dates as you normally would—and set up a price alert for that search to find the best deal.
This isn’t the only way to use Kayak’s price alerts. If you know exactly where you want to go but are not sure when, you can set up a flexible price alert to snag a low price to your destination. As you create a new alert, select “Flexible Dates” in the top navigation and enter your departure and arrival airports. You can make your travel dates anytime, upcoming weekends, or the month you’d like to travel. You’ll receive notifications for that route with whatever is the lowest price during the time period you selected.
Skyscanner
Skyscanner is another travel metasearch engine. As with Kayak, you can search for flights to and from specific destinations on specific dates and then set a price alert for that search. But you can also take advantage of Skyscanner’s “everywhere” function to search all destinations in the world, either on specific dates or for an entire month. If you want to get even more intel on when to book, check out the Savings Generator tool for the best time to book and the potential savings available for the most popular destinations.
Google Flights
Google Flights is an easy-to-use flight metasearch engine that allows you to track prices for your searches. Once you input your search parameters, you can click “track prices” to receive alerts if those prices change. You can also see the price history for your flights, and Google Flights will let you know whether the current prices are average, high, or low for that route.
Momondo
Metasearch engine Momondo might not have as much brand recognition as some of its competitors, but it’s a powerful tool for searching for flights. To set a price alert, search your origin, destination, and date, then toggle on price alerts for that search. Momondo also lets you know its predictions about whether or not it’s a good time to book. You can click on “flight insights” for a detailed report about the best times to fly to your destination, including the cheapest months, cheapest days of the week, and cheapest.
Twist’s Take: Move beyond guesswork to data-driven booking strategies; use flight price alerts to make more informed decisions about flight purchases.