Table of Contents
Introduction
Finding last minute flight deals can save you a ton of money on airfare, especially for flexible travelers. Luckily in 2024 there are dozens of fantastic apps dedicated to tracking prices and alerts for travel discounts and mistakes fares for flights both domestic and international. This article will countdown the 10 best apps for finding and booking last minute flight deals.
Kayak – The Best All-In-One Flight Search App
Kayak flight search has long been a favorite app of travelers looking for the widest range of flight deals in one place. Easy to filter by price, dates, airports and more – Kayak compiles flight results from hundreds of airlines and online travel sites like Expedia and Priceline into one integrated search.
One standout feature for last minute bookings is Price Forecast, which uses historical data to predict if flight prices are likely to increase or decrease. This can help you judge the best time to book those last minute flights you’ve had your eye on. An excellent all purpose flight search app.
Hopper – Excellent for Price Predictions
While Hopper lacks the extensive search capability of Kayak, its standout feature is fare predictions. The Hopper app uses proprietary algorithms and machine learning tech to analyze over 10 billion flight prices daily and provide 95% accurate future fare predictions up to 1 year out.
This allows flexible travelers to strategically target when to book flights for the best fares. You can set up Price Drop alerts for when the app predicts your target fare will hit, and Hopper will track and notify you often weeks before other apps. The fare freezing feature also allows you to lock in predicted low fares for a week while you finalize plans.
Scott’s Cheap Flights – Amazing Last Minute Deal Alerts – Now Become a Going.com
Going – Amazing Last Minute Deal Alerts
Scott’s Cheap Flights has earned a huge following from its excellent email alerts on mistake fares and unexpectedly cheap international flights. Now under a new name, Going continues that legacy of amazing last minute travel deals.
Going brings those same incredible discounted international flight deals right to your phone via personalized alerts. While Going doesn’t allow flexible date searching, its customized preferences and huge volume of daily deals means you’ll receive highly relevant last minute alerts for destinations you want to visit. Members save an average of $200 on international economy and $2000 on international business class tickets thanks to Going’s flight deal expertise.
The rebrand from Scott’s Cheap Flights to the new name Going comes courtesy of DesignStudio, which gave the popular travel platform a complete brand overhaul. Going carries on the torch of the Scott’s name by continuing to be one of America’s favorite resources for saving money on flights worldwide.
Hitlist – Great Wishlist App for Saving Money
Hitlist reinvented the travel wishlist by combining it with alerts when great deals pop up. You can easily add dream destinations and receive notifications any time unusually cheap promo fares appear.
While not focused solely on last minute flights, Hitlist’s flexible custom alerts, price drop notifications and inspiration make it easy to suddenly make those aspirational trips happen with its constantly updated cheap flight deals.
Skyscanner – Flexible Date and Destination Search
Skyscanner is one of the most popular flight apps globally for flexible travelers (over 100 million downloads). Its best features for finding last minute deals is its unique search-everywhere model. Simply enter your airport and dates and Skyscanner will surface the cheapest destinations and dates near your search.
This makes it easy to adjust your destination and dates a bit to accommodate the best last minute flight promotions. Fare alerts are also available. The app has excellent global coverage making it easy to find last minute flights abroad.
Google Flights – Simple Interface for Quick Searches
As the world’s most popular search engine, Google Flights offers an absurdly simple interface to allow travelers find the best prices fast. Unlike other apps Google Flights doesn’t overwhelm you with options upfront. Instead start by just entering your airport, destination and travel month.
Google Flights will then intuitively surface date grids, price graphs and tips highlighting the cheapest days to fly. The Explore feature also lets you easily change destinations and dates to accommodate the best deals. While simple, Google Flights fast and intuitive interface makes it easy to find affordable last minute flights.
Priceline
While Priceline may seem dated, its Name Your Own Price feature allows flexible travelers to set their budget and dates and receive last minute flight options bids from Priceline’s Express Deals inventory not advertised elsewhere.
Here’s how it works: You pick your ideal price for a flight based on your budget. Submit that price and your travel timeframe. Priceline sources discounted fares in their express deals marketplace and provides potential bid options for you to book. This inventory consists of unsold airline seats and excess capacity at rates lower than published prices.
You may score significant savings, but keep in mind you won’t know the exact airline or flight details until after booking. The fun is discovering just how great of a deal you’ll unlock from carriers like Delta, JetBlue, American without knowing specifics upfront. Priceline also aggregates major online travel sites for regular flight search as well.
Airfarewatchdog
What sets Airfarewatchdog apart is its team of 400+ dedicated airfare experts who manually comb for the best mistake fares and surprisingly low promo flight pricing. These incredible last minute flight finds are then sent directly to subscribers of Airfarewatchdog’s free email alerts.
Rather than solely using automated scripts and bots, Airfarewatchdog has real industry veterans personally identify the deepest discounts across thousands of routes when factors like oil price drops, competition wars, or overcapacity force airlines to drastically slash fares at the last minute.
This personal, human-led approach combined with their 25 years of travel booking experience makes their last minute deal alerts some of the absolute best. Subscribers gain insider access to cheap flights most travelers will never know about.
Skiplagged
While transparency about Skiplagged’s business model is questionable, the core search capability lives up to its motto “expose loopholes in airfare pricing to save travelers money”. By mixing and matching one way flights, Skiplagged uncovers hidden city ticketing loopholes that allow creative travelers to book trips for less.
The basic premise is that flights with connections are sometimes cheaper than nonstop flights to the same destination. Travelers can exploit this by booking the connection flight but only taking the first leg to the connection city, rather than the final destination. This allows flyers to access fares much lower fares than the nonstop flight to that initial connection city.
For example, booking LAX to New York City with a connection in Las Vegas could be cheaper than booking LAX direct to Las Vegas. Savvy deal hunters would book the full LAX-NYC ticket but only fly to Vegas, saving huge over nonstop Vegas pricing.
While incredibly effective for finding unpublished flight deals when flexible, hidden city ticketing violates most airlines fare rules. There are risks like no checked baggage allowances, potential for forfeiting remaining segments, and even account flagging and cancellation with frequent abuse. Still, for pure last minute deal hunting Skiplagged impresses in uncovering loopholes major OTAs don’t provide access to.
Just know the guidelines and airline policies before booking hidden city flights as a creative way to save money on airfare in 2024 and beyond. When used judiciously, Skiplagged provides deal hunting prowess to beat top OTAs.
Wego Flights – Metasearch Across 800+ Sites
Wego established itself rapidly as the top flight search engine in Asia Pacific, thanks to its meta search technology aggregating over 800 airline, OTA and travel booking sites across one platform.
While mainly catering to Asian markets, Wego still indexes major western brands like Priceline, Expedia and Skyscanner making it valuable for finding low fares worldwide. Its search algorithm prioritizes finding the absolute cheapest pricing through any partner site.
Wego’s “Pricegraph” feature stands out for making it easy to track daily price changes across multiple flights to capitalize on drops. Travelers can setup price drop email alerts when rates to desired destinations decrease. Wego also highlights mistake fares missed by other engines occasionally.
While the interface feels dated compared to other newcomers, flights not surfaced elsewhere do pop up on Wego thanks to the breadth of partners indexed. Savvy travelers know checking Wego can uncover special exclusive discounted rates other metasearch sites may miss when deal hunting in 2024 and beyond.
Conclusion
This sums up 2024’s top apps for finding last minute flight deals no matter your budget or destination. Flexible travelers have an amazing range of tech tools to save money and book discounted promo flights at the drop of a hat. Hopper, Kayak and Scott’s Cheap Flights lead the way in predictive data, aggregated searches and expert curated deals respectively. Safe travels and happy last minute flight booking!
FAQS
- What apps have the best last minute flight deals?
Some of the top apps for finding last minute flight deals are Hopper, Scott’s Cheap Flights, Hitlist, and Skyscanner. Hopper uses predictive algorithms to help you book flights for much cheaper than average airfare. Scott’s Cheap Flights has a huge database of cheap international flight deals that they email out to members. Hitlist lets you get price drop alerts when deals pop up for destinations on your travel wishlist. Skyscanner makes it easy to search everywhere and adjust your destination or dates to get the very best last minute fare.
- How do apps get such cheap last minute flights?
Apps like Hopper and Scott’s Cheap Flights use technology to uncover cheap flights that humans can miss. Hopper checks historical data and calculates future predictions to recommend the best time to book. Scott’s works with a worldwide community to discover mistake fares and crazy low priced promo flight deals other sites may not catch. The key is these apps put in the algorithmic work and manpower required to surface elusive deals average travelers normally wouldn’t be able to find on their own.
- What tricks do these apps use to find deals?
Some clever techniques last minute flight deal apps use include: flexible day and airport searches (Kayak), predictive algorithms analyzing billions of data points (Hopper), floating hidden city airfare loopholes (Skiplagged), manually compiled lists of mistake fares (Scott’s), reinvented user wishlists with price alerts (Hitlist), and exploring cheapest destination options for your dates and budget (Skyscanner). Rather than a single trick, the best apps combine technology, predictive analytics, expert knowledge and flexible search options to expose exceptional deals.
- Should I use last minute flight deal apps to plan future trips?
It depends. Apps like Hopper can forecast deals months in advance. But many true last minute flight deals only appear 1-2 weeks before departure dates when unsold seats get discounted. Peak season trips usually won’t get last minute discounts. So these apps work best for flexible travelers open to shifting dates and destinations at the drop of a hat based on the deals available. For trip planning far in advance, it’s wise to set a target budget using an app’s price prediction data.
- What are the risks of waiting until the last minute to book flights?
There is a risk the deals won’t appear leaving you to pay much higher last minute fares. Also less flight options and times can be available. And any personal schedule changes closer to your trip makes altering flights costly. occasionally waiting too long means popular routes sell out completely. There’s also a small chance of a higher fare after initially tracking lower prices. However for flexible travelers, apps provide price guarantees and predictions minimizing risks of waiting while alerting you to savings that can easily offset any downsides.