Airfarewatchdog Review 2023: Is It Worth It?

Listen, Friend, I love traveling, and I love a good deal. I have been known to take five flights from the U.S. to Athens, totaling 36 hours of travel, to save $100.

In the past, I would orchestrate such crazed itineraries myself, but with the advent of websites specializing in cheap airfare, I no longer have to go to the trouble of doing the work myself. One such website is Airfarewatchdog, which compares flight deals to popular locales.

This site also lets you sign up for email alerts, making finding flights for your favorite travel routes easy. With over ten years of experience, this company of airfare experts hires actual people to sort through thousands of flight prices to find the best deals for you.

What is Airfarewatchdog?

Travel enthusiast and writer George Hobica founded Airfarewatchdog, but TripAdvisor now operates it. Before creating his budget travel site, Hobica was an extensive traveler and wrote for such publications as Condé Nast and Travel and Leisure. Hobica still writes and is a champion of customizable low-fare routes. 

My search uncovered that Airfarewatchdog is a great option for travelers who have flexible dates or don’t have a specific destination in mind. For example, if someone has a long weekend and is hankering to get out of dodge, a quick search on Airfarewatchdog will load cheap flights to various locales.

However, it might not be the best option if one has a specific (and smaller city) in mind. If you have a loose itinerary, this site will save you a lot of money, which can be spent on your vacation!

How does Airfarewatchdog work?

When you load Airfarewatchdog on your browser, you will see this:

You enter your departure city and destination from here and click show deals. For email alerts, click the box under “Send me deals on this route.” A box will pop up and prompt you to add your email address. It’s as simple as that!

If you don’t have a specific route in mind and want to explore good deals, click on the FLIGHTS tab at the top of the page:

Here you will see a drop-down menu, and from there, you can click on either EXPLORE or WEEKEND DEALS. These are great options for people on a budget who are hankering for an adventure, wherever it takes them!

I was eager to try out Airfarewatchdog for myself. There is nothing quite as exciting as planning one’s next adventure. My self-imposed tutorial was complete; I logged on and was immediately struck by how easy the website was to navigate. I am technologically inept and could even figure out how to use it.

The first thing I noticed while fiddling about were advertisements for amazing deals: Charlotte, North Carolina, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for only $136. What kind of magical sorcery was this? Although I no longer live in Charlotte, I used to, so I clicked the link to see the full itinerary.

It took me to a secondary site (e-Dreams) which actually advertised the flight for $15 less! What?! Sorcery compounded! The itinerary was a non-stop flight. However, as with most budget flights, you had to purchase all extras you wanted, including meals, seat choice, baggage, and insurance. 

I decided to try a new search. I live in Aalborg, which is the fourth largest city in Denmark. On a quick search, I learned there are no flight deals from my smaller city.

Well, nuts. There were, however, fairly decent flights leaving from Copenhagen. This would necessitate me buying airfare from Aalborg to Copenhagen before taking advantage of the deals Airfarewatchdog touts.

My searches had shown promise, but being unable to snag a good deal for departing from Aalborg was hardly ideal. Hmmm… I decided to take a deeper dive into the site. Read on for a comprehensive review of Airefarewatchdog.

Pros

Easily Accessible

I found many pros for travel enthusiasts on a budget when exploring this site. For example, the site is easy to use. As aforementioned, those that struggle with technology will have no problems navigating the clear-cut layout.

The Weekender

Perhaps my favorite attribute of Airfarewatchdog is the weekend feature. My fellow traveler, I’m sure you dream of flying away somewhere for a fun weekend…especially when slogging through work on a Monday morning.

Enter the Weekend Deals tab.

This feature shows all cheap flights available between Thursdays and the following Tuesdays. Some itineraries are shorter, and some are longer, but you are guaranteed to find one that fits your schedule and budget.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Another unique feature I discovered on Airfarewatchdog is “Choose Your Own Adventure.” Here you are given options for your interests, such as Island Getaways, Beer Scenes, Aquariums, Amazing Architecture, and Adventure Travel. Then Airfarewatchdog shows details from your local airport to places that interest you based on your selection.

See Related: What is a Hacker Fare?

Airline Information

One feature I must rave about in this Airfarewatchdog review is that the site lists the airlines it uses. You can narrow your search to a specific airline if, for example, you want to capitalize on a rewards or points system.

Furthermore, Airfarewatchdog has compiled all the information you need about each airline, so there is no question of how much baggage fees are or how many carry-ons are permitted per person. Friend.

This is game-changing. Having all the information ready for you saves so much time and stress.

Set up Alerts

Airfarewatchdog allows users to set up email alerts like most budget travel sites. So, for example, if you had a hankering to go somewhere but wanted to wait until the price was right, you could set up email alerts that let you know when cheap airfare deals are available for your preferred route.

While email alerts are popular amongst various sites, it is nevertheless a handy feature. After all, the less time you spend cruising the interwebs for good deals, the more time you can spend planning the fun parts of your trip.

See Related: Ways to Book the Cheapest First-Class Flights

No Fees

Airfarewatchdog is free to use and does not contain hidden fees when purchasing tickets.

Blog

Airfarewatchdog provides a blog that is a great resource for travelers looking for top travel tips – people after our hearts! They have three categories of articles: Recent Fare Sales, Travel Tips and Advice, and Travel Gear.

I particularly enjoyed reading “Should I Get Travel Insurance” by Alene Laney. As someone who frequently flies to the U.S. with accident-prone children, getting a list of legitimate insurance agents was helpful so I could be covered in an emergency! 

I also found the Recent Fare Sales page helpful in highlighting deals across many airline companies. It makes booking low-price flights so easy when all the information has been researched for you and is presented in an easily-accessible way. 

Cons

Despite the multitude of amazing features that Airfarewatchdog offers, this review would be remiss without mentioning some disadvantages of using Airfarewatchdog’s services.

Bait and Switch

Several reviews I read complained about Airfarewatchdog employing bait-and-switch tactics. Customers would see a good airfare price and click the link.

When sent to the second-party site, the prices would have increased by at least $100. Although this was not my personal experience with Airfarewatchdog, I have experienced this on other sites that tout cheap airfare deals.

Fellow Traveler, as you know, it is extremely frustrating to find a good deal and then discover that it doesn’t exist.

Specific to Popular Hubs

This review mentions that low fares are bountiful on this site, but only for popular airport hubs. Trying to get a deal out of a smaller city (like Aalborg *sniff*) is a guaranteed no-go.

No Rewards

Airfarewatchdog would love it if you book flights directly through them – fair enough, they helped you find the flight; only fair to let them wet their beak, right?

Cool, remember that Airfarewatchdog doesn’t have any rewards or incentives for actually booking through them so you could be missing out on airline miles and credit card points. Find the deal, then book at the source or a travel portal.

Poor Customer Service

A number of customer reviews complained about poor customer service. Users of the site mentioned rude and unhelpful agents and were understandably frustrated.

A sure way to ruin the joy of planning a fun vacation is difficulty contacting the agent with any ticket reservation questions!

Too Many Ads!

My foray into Airafarewatchdog left me with no small amount of ad trauma. The amount of marketing and promotional emails they send is borderline obnoxious.

See Related: Travel Hacking 101

Key Features

As aforementioned, Airfarewatchdog has some truly unique aspects that set it apart from its competitors. But aside from the company’s weekend, adventure, and flight info features, there are some others worth noting as well:

• Low-Cost Flights – Airfarewatchdog delivers its mission to provide travelers with low-cost flights. These flights may be no-frills, but they will get the budget-conscious traveler where they want to go.
• Travel Tips – Airfarewatchdog provides a section on travel tips and advice that provides information on the practical aspects of travel (“Should I get travel insurance?“) to the fun (“10 Spookiest Haunted Hotels in the World”).
• Hotel Alerts – Besides low airline prices, Airfarewatchdog offers hotel alerts where users can be appraised of any low fees in their desired vacation spot. This makes finding your next hotel stay convenient and easy.

See Related: SafetyWing Review: Is It Legit or a Scam?

Airfarewatchdog vs. the Competition

Unlike popular competitors, Airfarewatchdog is free to use. For this broke lady, that is huge. I always feel like I’m getting scammed if I have to pay a fee to take advantage of good deals. It’s almost as if the monthly fee cancels the savings from the cheap airfare. 

Going.com (Formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights)

Going (Formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights) is an excellent investigative alternative to Airfarewatchdog. They offer a similar service with remarkably similar coverage regarding possible destination cities with an easy-to-use interface.

They also have a free trial (that you can use indefinitely), but you need to pay a premium ($49 per year) to get their best deals. That way, you can get the best deals and up-to-date info on flights and destinations. This is a good middle-ground option if you’re a somewhat frequent traveler. Read our full Going.com review if you’d like to know more about the cheap flight newsletter.

Thrifty Traveler Premium

Thrifty Traveler Premium is another alternative I’d recommend. The premium program with these guys is (only) a little more expensive than their counterparts (either $50 a year or $6 per month), but certainly worth it if you are a frequent traveler.

What you’re paying for is the service and convenience – Thrifty Traveler has a superb customer service team and an intuitive site that can help you manage booking flights, hotels, cars, and where your points or mile are spent.

Plus, they’ll send you terrific deals on flights several times daily, making them a top choice for frequent travelers. Read our full Thrifty Traveler review if you’d like to know more about the cheap flight alert newsletters.

It’s Not a Booking Site

You might wonder how Airfarewatchdog compares to popular Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) like Orbitz and Expedia. A little-known fact is that the OTAs above are owned by the same parent company (the Expedia Group), and while they offer great deals, all bookings are done directly on their site. This means it is in Airfarewatchdog’s best interest for you to book directly with them.

Conversely, Airfarewatchdog (like fellow website Kayak) aggregates information from several sites to bring you the best deals. When the user clicks on the link, they are taken to a third-party site to view the itinerary and purchase the flight. While some might consider it a pain to be directed to a third-party site for booking, it seems more above board to me.

I’ll be honest, friend; if you’re not into the deals Airfarewatchdog has sniffed out for you, I’ve had a lot of luck finding and booking deals through Kayak. Sure, the website is as orange as a Cheeto, but the one-stop-shop convenience of Kayak is killer.

Offers Deals from Budget Airlines

Airfarewatchdog promotes deals from companies like Southwest Airlines that its competitors do not. This provides the user with more opportunities for great airline prices! 

Airfarewatchdog Review Ratings

• Ease-of-Use: 5/5
• Features: 4/5
• Customer Service: 2/5
• Value for Money: 4/5

See Related: Best Alternatives to Skyscanner

Verdict

With all this in mind, I would recommend this as one of the sites that travelers on a budget look at when booking their next trip, especially if booking flights to or from a major city.

Of course, one must be advised that a deal might change instantly due to ever-changing flight prices. However, this can happen on all budget airfare websites and is par for the course.

With an easy-to-use interface, thousands of deals daily, and helpful features that cater to your interests and schedules, Airfarewatchdog is a tool that can aid you in planning your next adventure and saving money while doing it.

Related Resources

• Best Websites for Cheap Flights and Hotels
• How to Book the Cheapest One-Way International Flights
• How to Get Cheap Last-Minute Flights
• Best Ways to Get Cheap Flight Alerts