Going Review [2023]: Can It Simplify Finding Flight Deals?

Going (formerly known as Scott's Cheap Flights) is a platform that can help you find great deals on flights from your favorite airports. The platform aims to locate deals on both domestic and international flights. It then shares these deals with its subscribers. Going uses software and people to research opportunities and evaluate potential airfare deals.

In this Going review, let's take a closer look at this service and how you might be able to make your travel budget stretch further with this simple travel hacking tool.

Key takeaways

• Going (formerly known as Scott's Cheap Flights) is a platform that can help you find great deals on flights from the airports you choose.
• The platform operates on a membership-based model, offering both free and premium subscription options. The free membership gives you access to international flight deals in economy class.

• Going offers two paid subscriptions, the premium subscription costs $49 a year and gives you access to domestic deals, while the elite subscription costs $199 a year and gives you access to deals in more flight classes.

• Going's service relies on a combination of software and human flight searchers, or Flight Experts, to evaluate flight deals and select the best value options for its subscribers.
• Frequent travelers might find that the potential savings they could find by using Going outweigh its subscription cost. However, people who don’t travel as often might not benefit as much from the platform.
  

What is Going?

Going, originally Scott's Cheap Flights, launched in 2015. Founder Scott Keyes developed the idea after researching flights. Each time he found a great deal on a flight, he’d share the news with friends. He was often asked how he did it and if he could teach them how to do it. Instead of helping them out by sending individual emails, he created a distribution list and started sending them information about deals he had found.

Years later, Keyes turned this initial idea into a company that has more than two million email list subscribers. People sign up for a free or premium membership and, in return, get email alerts of deeply discounted pricing on flights from airports they select to destinations within and outside of the continental U.S.

The Going platform doesn’t charge commissions on these recommendations. It makes money through paid memberships. The links it provides to flight deals take you to other platforms where you can search for and purchase tickets. You can’t search for flights on the Going platform, but you can browse through an extensive library of articles and resources for making smart travel decisions.

How does Going work?

A lot of what goes on at Going takes place behind the scenes. The website itself is a portal for you to sign up for a  Going membership. This process includes selecting airports you want to receive flight alerts about and sharing some personal information so you can begin receiving emails with deals.

There is not much more to the website after you complete your registration. It has an extensive FAQ section and lots of articles containing travel tips and info on being a smart, savvy traveler. You can peruse recent deals, get some generalities about current deals, and get linked directly to Google Flights with search criteria already filled in. The site doesn’t offer flight search capabilities.

How does Going find flight deals?

But once you create an account and designate your airports, Going starts looking for flights that could be good deals. Instead of relying on an algorithm, the so-called Flight Experts review the available data against the company’s standards for what constitutes a cheap flight or a good deal. Criteria include how the price compares to regularly offered prices for that flight, convenience, how much time you’ll spend traveling, travel dates, airline experience, etc.

This human involvement in the deal-finding process is a key detail in providing quality recommendations to members. The emails you get have information about possible deals and links/instructions for booking. Going doesn’t handle any kind of booking. It sends you to partner sites, such as Google Flights and Momondo, to search for the provided deal. There, you can complete your booking. Customer support is on hand via email, though, to help you with questions.

How to sign up for Going

Signing up for Going is easy. Start by visiting the Going website. Click on the “Sign Up” button in the top right corner of the screen. You’ll have two options to choose from: sign up with your Google account or with your email address. If you sign up using your email, you’ll be sent a link to verify your account.  

Next, you’ll be asked to choose your home airport. If you live close to an airport that doesn’t usually get a high number of deals, the software will suggest additional airports to add and create a list that the software will regularly search.

You’ll be asked to choose a membership plan after you select your home airport(s). It will continually nudge you toward the premium membership, even if you choose the basic one. There is a comparison list to consider, which shows what you get with each option.

As you can see from the image below, you get very little from the free version. Because the premium version of the membership is only $49 per year and you get a 14-day free trial, it may well be worth the investment for the deals you get in return. And if you compare credit cards and use a lucrative rewards card, the purchase makes even more sense. 

You’ll finish out your registration with a message from Keyes and the option to check out deals that were recently available. Then you just have to wait for the deals to hit your inbox. The rest of the site doesn’t offer searches for flights or much additional information other than travel guides.

How to get the most out of Going

Signing up for the premium membership will help you get the most value from Going. As a premium member, you’ll automatically receive every type of deal Going searches for. Being flexible with travel dates and destinations can also lead you to the best prices. The days you fly can impact fares, and you may well find that flying into a city that’s close to your main destination can result in significant savings.

My personal experience with Going

One example of this is when I was planning my trip to Amsterdam, I looked at prices for flying into London, Paris, Brussels, and even a few cities in Germany. Even though London and Amsterdam aren’t all that far from each other, tickets to London were hundreds of dollars more expensive than flying direct to Amsterdam. I also found the best deal for flying home to the U.S. was to leave from Paris. This led to planning a multi-city trip and taking trains across Europe to get from one destination to another.

You can also make the most of Going by acting fast when you get a great price. These offers may be very short-lived. Once you see an offer, immediately investigate whether it’s a good buy for you. Even better, see if there is a way to book your cheap flight with points to reduce your out-of-pocket costs. And don't forget to compare offers on the best travel credit cards to maximize your rewards. 

Finally, make sure you’re subscribed to get ongoing communications from Going. This will keep you up to date on all the promotions, educational information, contests, and more that are being sent out by the Going team.

Going FAQ

Going: bottom line

Overall, Going is a great tool to check out if you’re planning to travel or are just interested in seeing what kind of cheap flight deals are out there. Sometimes a great deal on a roundtrip ticket can lead you to places you never thought you’d go or it could help you see an amazing destination that's been on your bucket list.

It costs less than $5 a month to get all the premium information. If you’re someone who loves a good deal, especially when it comes to travel, that is money well spent.