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Thrifty Traveler is one of my favorite cheap flight and award availability subscription services. Of all of the services I'm subscribed to (and it's a lot), I've gotten the most value out of Thrifty Traveler Premium. From cheap Europe flights to unicorn-level award availability, Premium+ alerts you to it all — including by text if you opt into that option.
If you aren't already a Thrifty Traveler Premium subscriber, now's the time to consider signing up. Through 11:59 pm Pacific Time on August 24, 2023, Thrifty Traveler is offering a 40% discount on your first year of Premium or Premium+ to celebrate National Cheap Flight Day.
Key Terms of Thrifty Traveler Premium Sale
- Get 40% off Thrifty Traveler Premium and Premium+ subscriptions with promo code CHEAP. That's $41.99 for Premium and $53.99 for Premium+
- Discount is only available on August 23 and 24, 2023. The promotion will end at 11:59 pm Pacific Time on August 24, 2023.
- Not valid for current Premium and Premium+ subscribers.
- The discount is only valid for the first subscription year.
- You'll still lock in the current subscription price ($69.99/year for Premium or $89.99/year for Premium+) for future years — protecting you against price increases.
Thrifty Traveler Premium Tiers
Thrifty Traveler offers three membership tiers:
- Free membership — 1-2 economy deals per week
- Premium: $69.99 per year — domestic and international economy cash deals tailored to your preferred airport(s), plus the occasional mistake fare
- Premium+: $89.99 per year — economy, business, and first class flight deals and award availability, tailored to the airports you select. Includes mistake fares and text message alerts.
AwardWallet Blog readers are probably going to get the most value out of Premium+ tier. In addition to getting business- and first-class deal alerts, you also get award alerts. Examples of award alerts sent to me in the past few months include:
- 20,000-point United lie-flat business class to Cancun
- 30,000-point round-trip Turkish economy awards to Istanbul.
- 39,000-point Iberia business class to Spain.
- 44,000-point Air France business class awards to Paris (and beyond).
- 45,000-mile Turkish Airlines business class awards to Istanbul, Turkey (and beyond).
- 50,000-mile Cathay Pacific business class awards to Hong Kong (and beyond).
- 55,000-point Swiss business class to Switzerland.
- Rare 55,000-mile business class awards to Fiji and New Zealand.
- 56,000-point Virgin Atlantic Upper Class awards to London.
- 70,000-mile business class awards to Maldives.
- 88,000-mile roundtrip business class awards to Europe.
Just one award alert was incredible enough to justify my paying another year (or two) of Thrifty Traveler Premium+. Thrifty Traveler was the first service to alert me to wide-open award availability in United Polaris:
Wide-open United Polaris award availability from March ~14-19, 2024. Pretty much all routes!
Fly San Fran to Cape Town, NYC to Tahiti, or Houston to Sydney!
Katie and I just booked United Polaris from DXB-EWR, to position for our NYC-DPS ANA $515 r/t biz class return flight 😁 pic.twitter.com/6qXEExbgqt
— JT Genter (@JTGenter) April 20, 2023
Note that Thrifty Traveler eliminated the option to pay $9.99 per month for its Premium tier in late 2022 when it revamped its new Premium tiers. Now, travelers only have the option to pay for an annual subscription.
Afraid of making that much commitment to a service you don't know? I get it. Thankfully, Thrifty Traveler offers an impressively long 100-day money-back guarantee. That means you can bail out if the service doesn't live up to your expectations — even more than three months after signing up.
Is Thrifty Traveler Premium Worth It?
Many flight deal subscription services have popped up over the past few years. But arguably no service does a better job of alerting travelers to deals than Thrifty Traveler Premium.
As a very frequent traveler, I'm a member of several paid flight deal services. (Like, I might have an addiction to cheap flights.) Each service has its pros and cons. But I find that Thrifty Traveler Premium does an excellent job of alerting subscribers to both cheap cash fares and points/miles deals.
Out of the services I subscribe to, Thrifty Traveler is often the first to find deals. When another subscription service finds a deal first, Thrifty Traveler is quick to alert its members. While that might (justifiably) ruffle feathers with other services, this makes Thrifty Traveler Premium+ the flight deal subscription service I recommend.
After being a free Thrifty Traveler member for years, I finally upgraded in May 2021. Since then, I've been so impressed with the service that it's a no-brainer to renew my Premium+ membership year after year.
What Sets Thrifty Traveler Premium Apart
Lots of deals (but not too many)
Some flight deal subscription services pepper you with so many, often-mediocre options that it becomes easy to ignore their alerts. Other subscription services only send out a few alerts per month.
I find that Thrifty Traveler has found the Goldilocks sweet spot in the middle. You'll get enough alerts that you'll have options but not many that you don't open each email.
For reference, Thrifty Traveler sent out more than 100 deal alerts — including 24 award alerts and 25 premium cabin deals for Premium+ members — in July. That's more than three alerts a day, although not all deals are sent to all members.
100-day money-back guarantee
Thrifty Traveler offers a full refund of your subscription price within 100 days of subscribing. While this isn't quite as simple as a free trial, it's a sign that the team is so confident that you'll love their service that they are willing to offer a generous refund period.
Text message alerts
Don't miss out on an incredible deal just because you don't have your email inbox open. Premium+ members can add their cell phone number to their profile to get text messages about rare and time-sensitive deals.
How to Sign Up for Thrifty Traveler Premium
Here are the steps if you want to take advantage of this deal. First, click on this link. Next, click “send me flight deals” to shortcut yourself to the subscription options.
Decide whether you want Premium or Premium+ and click the corresponding button. Next, create a new account — or log in if you have a free membership. Finally, enter promo code CHEAP for 40% off.
According to AwardWallet's Merchant Category Lookup Tool, Thrifty Traveler Premium codes as travel. That means you'll want to charge your subscription to a card that rewards general travel spending, such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card:
Bottom Line
To celebrate National Cheap Flight Day, Thrifty Traveler is offering 40% off Premium+ subscriptions to new members — but only for two days. You'll want to sign up by 11:59 pm Pacific on August 24, 2023 to take advantage of this deal.
Considering how much value I've gotten from being a Premium member, I can easily recommend signing up for Thrifty Traveler Premium+. Paying $53.99 for a year of cheap flights and award availability — tailored to your airport — is an excellent deal.
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Will signing up now grandfather us in at the $59.99/year for Premium+? Or is this a year 1 opportunity only?
Yes! You will be grandfathered in at $59.99/year
Thank you! Signed up and will give this a try! Never had a flight deal subscription before, so this will be fun to watch.
I am a present premium member. Must I do anything (such as reaffirming my existing membership) to automatically advance to Premium+?
No, we’ve been assured by Thrifty Traveler that memberships will be upgraded automatically.
Thanks for this heads up. I’m not currently a member of any services like this, but Thrifty Traveller does sound like a useful tool.
However, I’m strictly a leisure flyer, mostly using Alaska miles for 3 or 4 international round trips a year and wonder if returning to my past single sign ups at Expert Flyer might be more useful and cost effective than Thrifty Traveller?