If you fly more than once or twice a year, a flight-deal subscription can pay for itself the first time it surfaces a fare. The two best-known options for U.S. travelers are Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights) and FareDrop, and they sound similar on the surface: pay an annual fee, get email or text alerts when prices drop, book through the airline before the deal disappears. The differences sit underneath. As of April 2026, Going leans broad and points-friendly with a three-tier price ladder, while FareDrop runs leaner with a focused alert volume and a two-tier structure. This review walks through pricing, alert mechanics, geographic coverage, points-and-miles support, and who each one fits.

Quick Summary

Best For: Going Premium fits travelers who want frequent international cash-fare alerts and points/miles award alerts from a long list of U.S. airports. FareDrop Pro fits travelers who want a smaller volume of higher-conviction alerts, including business class and SMS for time-critical mistake fares.

Standout Benefit: Going's Premium tier is the only one of the two that includes award-flight alerts using points and miles. FareDrop's standout is text-message delivery for fast-moving mistake fares.

Biggest Drawback: Going's free tier is meaningfully throttled, with deals delayed and limited in volume. FareDrop's free tier is U.S. domestic only, which is a small slice of why most readers want a deal service.

Current Pricing (April 2026): Going has a free Limited tier, Premium at $49 per year, and Elite at $199 per year. FareDrop has a free domestic tier, Premium at roughly $59 per year, and Pro at roughly $99 per year. Confirm current pricing on each site before subscribing.

What Going Does

Going is a subscription that scans hundreds of routes for cash-fare deals out of U.S. airports and sends them to subscribers by email. The service started in 2013 as Scott's Cheap Flights and rebranded to Going in 2022. The team includes human flight searchers who hand-curate alerts for sale fares, mistake fares, and award-redemption sweet spots.

The volume is the headline. Going pushes a steady stream of international and domestic deals, often discounted 40% to 90% off typical fares. They do not promise every alert will fit your travel calendar. The service rewards people who can be flexible on dates and destinations.

Going's Three Tiers

Limited (Free): A small number of deals, delayed by roughly a day or two from when paid members get them. Up to five departure airports. Useful as a way to test the service.

Premium ($49 per year): Real-time domestic and international economy deals, weekend getaway alerts, mistake-fare alerts, up to ten departure airports, and the ability to filter by region and trip length. This is the tier most readers should look at first.

Elite ($199 per year): Everything in Premium plus premium-cabin (business and first) cash-fare deals, award-flight alerts using major loyalty programs, unlimited departure airports, and priority customer support. The award alerts are the differentiator at this price.

Where Going Shines

Going's airport list is broad. You can set every major U.S. hub plus a long tail of regional airports, which matters if you live somewhere with limited nonstop options. The hand-curation also filters out the kind of alert that looks cheap until you realize it is a 28-hour itinerary on a budget carrier you have never heard of. Most Going alerts are ones a typical traveler would actually book.

The Elite tier's award-flight alerts are also the most genuinely useful points-and-miles feature in this category. If you are sitting on a stash of Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards points and want help finding open premium-cabin award space, Going Elite does that work for you.

Where Going Falls Short

The free tier is thin enough that it feels more like a trial than a product. If you sign up for Limited and conclude the service is not worth paying for, you have not actually seen what the paid tiers do.

Going is also U.S.-departure focused. If you live abroad, the service is not built for you. And while the deal volume is high, that can be a feature or a problem depending on inbox tolerance. You can filter, but you will still see more than a few emails a week.

What FareDrop Does

FareDrop is a flight-alert service founded by travel YouTubers Kara and Nate Buchanan, who built a following documenting their multi-year trip around the world. Like Going, the service alerts subscribers to cheap flights from U.S. airports, including mistake fares and seasonal sale fares. Unlike Going, FareDrop puts more weight on the user's preferences upfront. The onboarding asks for departure airports, target destinations, travel windows, and a budget ceiling.

FareDrop also has a mobile app and supports text-message alerts for time-sensitive fares, which is a meaningful difference for mistake fares that can be repriced within an hour of being spotted.

FareDrop's Two Paid Tiers (Plus Free)

Domestic (Free): Domestic U.S. flight deals only.

Premium (around $59 per year): Domestic plus international economy deals, mobile app access, and email and SMS alert options.

Pro (around $99 per year): Everything in Premium plus international business and first class cash-fare deals.

Unlike Going, FareDrop does not currently include points-and-miles award-flight alerts in any tier. Their service is cash-fare focused.

Where FareDrop Shines

The personalization shows up early. You set your departure airports, the regions you want to visit, the months you can travel, and the maximum you are willing to pay, and FareDrop filters its alerts against those criteria. If you ask only for Europe deals from JFK in summer under $700, that is mostly what you get. For travelers who do not want the firehose, this matters.

SMS for mistake fares is the other genuine edge. A real mistake fare often disappears within 30 to 90 minutes once the airline catches it. An email alert that arrives while you are in a meeting is too slow. A text usually is not.

The Pro tier's business-class deals also tend to be solid for a service at this price. The hit rate is lower than Going Elite (which has more searchers), but the value when an alert lands is comparable.

Where FareDrop Falls Short

The points-and-miles gap is the main one. If your goal is to use Chase, Amex, Capital One, or airline-program miles to book a premium cabin, FareDrop does not help. Every alert is a cash fare. For a points-and-miles audience, that is a real limitation.

Geographic coverage outside Europe is also thinner. FareDrop alerts skew toward Western Europe, the Caribbean, and Mexico from the East Coast and West Coast hubs. If you want frequent alerts to South America, Africa, or secondary Asia destinations, the Going alert volume is higher.

Going vs. FareDrop: Side-by-Side

Pricing: Going is cheaper at the entry paid tier ($49 vs. roughly $59) and pricier at the premium tier ($199 vs. roughly $99). If you want premium-cabin alerts and are not chasing award flights, FareDrop Pro is the cheaper way in. If you want award-flight alerts, Going Elite is the only option.

Alert volume: Going pushes more alerts. FareDrop pushes fewer, more personalized ones.

Departure airports: Going wins on breadth (up to 10 on Premium, unlimited on Elite, vs. FareDrop's smaller list). If you fly out of a regional airport, Going is more likely to cover it.

Mistake fares: Both services alert subscribers to mistake fares on their paid tiers. FareDrop's SMS option gives a real speed advantage for these.

Premium-cabin cash fares: Both cover this on their top tier. Going Elite is $199; FareDrop Pro is around $99.

Points and miles: Going Elite alerts you to award availability using points. FareDrop is cash-only. This is the single biggest split between the two.

App and delivery: FareDrop has a dedicated mobile app and SMS. Going is email-first, with a recently added app.

Geographic strength: Going has wider coverage, especially for less-common destinations. FareDrop has tighter coverage focused on routes and regions its team prioritizes.

Who Should Pick Going

  • Travelers who fly internationally at least once a year and want alerts to a wide set of destinations.
  • Anyone with a meaningful points balance in Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, or airline programs who wants help finding award space.
  • Travelers based at smaller regional airports who need an alert service that actually covers them.
  • People who do not mind a higher email volume in exchange for more deal opportunities.

Who Should Pick FareDrop

  • Travelers who want a smaller, more focused alert volume and prefer SMS over email for time-critical alerts.
  • Anyone who has tried Going and bounced off the email volume, since FareDrop's onboarding-driven filters cut a lot of that out.
  • Travelers who specifically want premium-cabin cash-fare alerts and do not need award-flight support, since FareDrop Pro is roughly half the price of Going Elite.
  • Travelers based on the East or West Coast with flexibility on Europe, the Caribbean, or Mexico travel.

Who Should Skip Both

If you only fly once a year and you already know exactly when and where you are going, neither service will pay for itself. Set a Google Flights price alert for your route and check Skyscanner once a month. If you fly more than that, or you have flexibility on where to go, the math on either service is straightforward — one Europe round-trip saved at $300 covers Going Premium six times over.

Final Verdict

For most readers, the question is not "Going or FareDrop" but "which one fits how I actually travel." If you have flexibility, points to use, and a wider geographic appetite, Going Premium ($49 per year) or Elite ($199 per year) is the better fit. If you want a lower-volume, more personalized feed with SMS for mistake fares and you are paying with cash rather than points, FareDrop Premium or Pro is the cleaner choice and the cheaper way into premium-cabin alerts. Both services have free tiers, so the no-cost path is to test each for a month before paying.

This article contains affiliate links. If you apply through our links, we may earn a commission at no cost to you, which helps us continue sharing points and miles strategies with the community.

Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. We may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you apply through these links. This helps us keep the site running and continue creating free content.