Flight price alerts: how they work and which one to choose

At a glance

• Price alerts are not all alike: some follow a route, some send you deals picked by someone else, and some start from the budget you have in mind.
• If you already know where and when you want to go, route alerts from Google Flights, Skyscanner, Kayak or Kiwi.com do exactly what you need.
• If you're looking for inspiration, deal newsletters such as Going or Jack's Flight Club suggest places you might never have searched for.
• If you have a fixed budget and you're flexible on destination and dates, an alert that starts from your airports and your maximum price makes more sense.
• Whatever tool you use, always confirm the price on the site where you book: fares change quickly.

The three kinds of alerts

Before comparing individual services, it helps to understand what actually triggers the notification. That's the difference that matters most.

• Route alerts: you choose departure, destination and usually dates; the service tells you when that price changes. Ideal when the trip is already decided.
• Curated deal newsletters: a team hunts for unusually low fares and sends them to you. You don't pick the destination: you discover it. Ideal if you want to be inspired.
• Budget-based alerts: you set where you fly from, how much you want to spend and how flexible you are; you get a notification when any flight that fits your rules drops below that amount.

None of the three is better in absolute terms: they answer different questions. "How much is Lisbon to Prague on 12 May?" is a route-alert question. "Where can I go in October for under €60?" is a budget-alert question.

Route alerts, tool by tool

What follows describes the features as shown on the official pages as of September 2026. These services change often: check their site before relying on a feature.

Google Flights. After a search you switch on price tracking. You can track the dates you searched or any dates: in that case you get an email when the route's minimum price drops significantly over a month. Alerts arrive by email. Google Flights doesn't sell tickets: when you pick a flight it usually takes you to the airline's or an online travel agency's website. Strength: it covers a huge number of airlines, including full-service and long-haul carriers. Limit: you always start from a route.

Skyscanner. You search a route with dates, sign in to your account and set up the price alert. You get an email when the price changes, or a push notification if you set it up in the app. Skyscanner also has its "Everywhere" search, which is great for exploring; however, we couldn't find official confirmation that you can create an alert for an "Everywhere" search, so we don't take it for granted.

Kayak. You need an account. You can track a route on exact dates or set a flexible alert that tells you the lowest price in the period you chose. Kayak also describes alerts for the most popular cities in a region, such as Europe. Updates usually arrive once a day, bundled into one email or push notification, but you can ask for real-time alerts when the price changes significantly (typically by 10%). Kayak describes itself as a search engine, not a booking provider: you book with the provider.

Kiwi.com. After searching for a trip, you switch on "Set up price alerts" and get an email or push notification when the price changes. Kiwi.com states clearly that it can't send price alerts for flights to unspecified destinations. Unlike the comparison sites, on Kiwi.com you book directly on the site, which also offers its own Kiwi.com Guarantee.

Hopper. Born as an app, it lets you "watch" a trip: with app notifications on, it tells you when the price changes and suggests whether to buy now or wait, based on its predictions. It also offers paid extras such as Price Freeze, which holds a flight's price for a period; according to Hopper's help centre, that fee isn't refundable if you then don't book. Flights are booked inside Hopper.

Deal newsletters

Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights) has experts who pick deals and email them to you, with an app and website to browse them. It searches for flights departing from the United States. There's a free plan, Limited, and two paid ones: Premium at $49 a year and Elite at $199 a year. Going doesn't sell tickets: it sends you to the airline or a travel agency.

Jack's Flight Club works in a similar way, with a team searching every day for unusually low fares and sending them by email and app. It covers departures from the UK, Europe, the United States and Canada. The free plan includes a few deals a week; paid plans add more and let you choose several departure airports (in the UK the Takeoff plan costs £48 a year). Here too, you book elsewhere.

Airline newsletters are the other classic source. Ryanair has a page dedicated to flash sales, and Wizz Air a newsletter about discounts, sales and seasonal offers. They're free and come straight from whoever sells the flight, but they only cover one airline and don't know which airport you fly from or how much you want to spend.

Budget-based alerts: how FlyDown works

FlyDown is the service you'll find on this site, so we describe it by the same yardstick we used for the others, limits included.

A watch doesn't start from a route but from your rules: one or more departure airports, destination "anywhere" or specific cities or countries (plus destinations to exclude), a date range or how many days ahead to look, return or one-way, minimum and maximum nights, number of adults, weekends only, abroad only, and a maximum price. When a flight that matches these rules drops below that amount, you get an alert.

• Airlines: low-cost only, namely Ryanair, Wizz Air, easyJet, Vueling, Volotea and Transavia.
• Checks: automatic, several times a day, day and night. The interval can be set from every 15 minutes to once a day; the default is every 3 hours.
• Notifications: push on your phone or computer, instantly or as one daily digest, with quiet hours. You can get new deals under budget, price drops, the lowest price seen so far on a route, and problems with a watch. There's also a "Real deals only" option, which alerts you only when the price is well below the usual one for that route, based on the price history FlyDown has collected.
• More cities in one trip: for deals, FlyDown builds multi-city trips: you land in one city, continue by FlixBus or FlixTrain to nearby ones, with nights already split and alternative splits listed with the price difference. You'll find some examples on the multi-city trips page.
• Booking: FlyDown doesn't sell tickets. The "Book" button opens the airline's website and FlyDown adds no fees. No ads and no tracking cookies.
• Cost: the Basic plan is free and includes 1 active watch. The Pro (3 watches) and Unlimited plans are coming soon, with a waitlist; there are no payments for now.

The limits, stated plainly: no full-service airlines or long-haul flights, networks focused mainly on Europe, only one watch on the free plan, and the price must always be confirmed on the airline's website before you pay. FlyDown is a web app you can install on your phone, available in Italian, English, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese.

The comparison in one table

Which one suits which traveller

• Dates and route already fixed: a route alert from Google Flights, Skyscanner or Kayak is the simplest choice, and it covers full-service airlines too.
• Long-haul or business class: look at the comparison sites and, if you fly from the United States or a large European airport, newsletters such as Going or Jack's Flight Club.
• You want inspiration without setting anything up: a deal newsletter sends you ready-made ideas, picked by people.
• You want to decide whether to buy now or wait: Hopper's predictions are designed exactly for that.
• Fixed budget, flexible destination and dates, low-cost flights in Europe: a FlyDown watch starts from how much you want to spend and from your airports, and it can also suggest a multi-city trip.

Nothing stops you from combining them: a route alert for the family trip that's already fixed and a budget watch for spontaneous weekends get along just fine.

Tips for using alerts well

1. Decide your price first. An alert isn't much use if you don't know what amount would convince you. Write it down, and when it arrives, decide quickly.
2. Widen things where you can. More departure airports and more possible days mean more chances. Even one night more or less can change a lot.
3. Don't drown in notifications. Too many alerts end up ignored. Better a few, well set up, perhaps with a daily digest.
4. Move fast. Low fares don't last. If the price works for you, check it straight away on the airline's website.
5. Count the extras. Bags, seats and add-ons can change the total: read our guide to low-cost cabin baggage.
6. Mind the calendar. When you fly matters more than the day you book: we cover it in the guide on when to book low-cost flights.

Sources

• Google, Track flights & prices and Book a flight
• Skyscanner, How do I set up or cancel email price alerts? and Price Alerts & Saved
• Kayak, Pricing and Price Alerts and Track flight prices with Price Alerts
• Kiwi.com, Price alerts and Flight Price Alerts
• Hopper, Price Watch and Price Freeze
• Going, How Going works
• Jack's Flight Club, official website
• Ryanair, flash sale page; Wizz Air, newsletter

Sources checked in September 2026. FlyDown is not affiliated with the services and airlines mentioned: trademarks belong to their respective owners.