Airfare Watchdog Review

I take vacations whenever time permits and that includes long weekends as well as week- long excursions. Depending on the distance and the price, I will fly to my destination, but I am more wary of flight prices now than in the past due to the size of the family. This is why I am always looking for a bargain and one web site that helps you find good deals on airfare is Airfarewatchdog.com, a service that keeps an eye out for dropping prices.

Online Site Commentary:

Airfarewatchdog.com is designed with one main purpose in mind: To stand guard over the internet and report back to its master whenever a low priced airfare happens to creep into view, close to one's hometown or other defined airport. The site is made up of three sections: Airfare deals, News and Advice, and Bark About It. The first two departments are self- explanatory. The latter is a place within Airfarewatchdog.com where you can read discussion boards, post a comment, or cast a vote in a travel- related survey.

Using Airfarewatchdog.com is pretty simple. All you do is logon by entering your e-mail address, select a home airport(s) as a departure city search, and select the frequency for e-mail delivery as daily, frequently (2 or 3 times per week) , or weekly.  There is also an option to seach for a "travel to" location and the option to set an airfare alert for specified destination cities. These city to city alerts will be e-mailed to you only when a good deal is found.

I like to travel and in my household, we typically take two or three round trips each year by airplane. We need all the help we can get finding the best airfare. I know many places to check, but I don't have the time to check every airfare and travel site on the internet. And this is where Airfarewatchdog.com can become your new best friend. It searches for low airfares for you, while you work, sleep, eat, or play. It then delivers an e-mail digest to you with a summary showing some of the great deals available.

The e-mail digest that Airfarewatchdog.com sends out is pretty easy to follow and it divides its listings by airport first (if you asked for more than one) and then by domestic and international flights. Each listing includes the destination city, price for the flight, an indicator that lets you know if a minimum stay is required and if the flight is non stop, the date the travel is good through, and the specific airline offering the deal. If you see a deal you like, just click the link in your e-mail and it will take you to the Airfarewatchdog.com web site. Here, it will let you know some more specifics of the flight, along with the availability of seats at that price, the dates you are most likely to get the lowest priced flight, and links to specific travel sites to purchase the tickets.

I'm always game for cheap airfare and I have even been known to let low- priced airfare guide me to my next vacation destination. For this reason, I find Airfarewatchdog.com to be a very helpful site. But there are a few facts about Airfarewatchdog.com that prevent it from being even better. Aside from the very plain, unappealing appearance of the web site, the thing that annoys me most is that the flight deals often turn out to be too good to be true. Take for example a recent offer I was e-mailed that included airfare to Honolulu for only about $400 round trip. I quickly followed the links to find this airfare, which was supposedly good through December 15, 2009. But to my disappointment, there were no flights available toward the end of the year, even though that is what the e-mail claimed. In fact, as I continued to search backward using other dates, I found that the only way to get this incredible price was to travel within the next three months. The cheap airfare during the last several months of the year is already gone, but yet it continues to show this in my e-mail alerts along with a note that says the low prices are good through December 15, 2009. Airfarewatchdog.com needs to keep these fares updated more frequently.

Bottom Line Viewpoint:

Inexpensive airfare is a welcome find and I am glad that I discovered Airfarewatchdog.com. It helps me find the good deals and sends me e-mail alerts on a daily basis for great flight offers at home and abroad. If the people at Airfarewatchdog.com would keep the e-mail alerts updated more consistently, I would likely give Airfarewatchdog.com a higher rating. But I still like this service and I recommend it to anyone in need of a great deal on airfare.