Airfare Watchdog Review

www.airfarewatchdog.com

Overall 4.43 of 5 view all 7 reviews

mrkstvns
Austin, TX

Who Let the Deals Out? Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof!

Avid Traveler, a bargain lover, internet savvy, up, up and away, livin' la vida loca

Pros

great way to find low fares, don't have to use search to find deals, shows nearby airports

Cons

displays too many one-way fares, some fares are really not good deals, some lag in picking up price changes

MAY

2008

Airfare Watchdog —

With airfares shooting sky high these days, you just can't afford to blindly book airline tickets. It pays to shop around. But who has time to keep tabs on all the fare sales, 1-day promos, last-minute deals, and prices that change by the minute? I sure don't...

Fortunately, I have a watchdog to keep an eye on them for me. airfarewatchdog.com, to be precise.

Airfarewatchdog.com is a pretty ugly site, but like that old hound dog whose loyalty belies the wrinkles of age, airfarewatchdog's beauty is more than skin deep. It's beauty is simplicity, ease of use, and relevance.

All you have to do is plug in the city from which you want to fly and then let the dog loose! You'll get a page listing the cheapest airfares currently available out of your "home" airport. That's all there is to it! Bookmark the page, like I do, and come back every day to see if there's any opportunities for cheap getaways knocking on your door.

I like that the listings also include some of the smaller airports within a couple hours of my "home" airport. That gives me a chance to score the occasional dirt cheap airfare that I might have missed on my own.

I really like airfarewatchdog, and I really only have three complaints about the service:

I wish they would normalize the one-way fares to display round-trip prices --- the site should never, EVER list only the one-way fare. It's just too hard to easily compare apples to apples when there's all these goddamn oranges in the barrel.
I wish they'd be a little more discriminating about what they call "deals". Some of the airfares getting returned these days are downright HIGH prices. I understand the desire to have lots and lots of listings for every airport, but when there's no legitimate deals to be had there, it's better to just say so then to display a long list of red herrings.
I'd like some of the fares to be updated in a more timely manner. I can't help but notice that airline web sites sometimes display their last-minute weekend fares and their better fare sales up to a full day before the watchdog sinks his teeth into them. For the really GOOD deals, that's too long a delay and the bargains have already been gobbled up by the swifter dogs.

For the knowledgable frequent flyer, airfarewatchdog is a great resource. It can often spot deals I'd overlook, and it keeps me abreast of what the going "cheap fares" are for flights leaving out of my hometown. I like to travel a lot, but I don't like to pay a lot. Airfarewatchdog helps me do both.

Airfarewatchdog is this travelin' man's best friend...