13 Of The Best Flight Booking Apps For Cheaper Deals

Getting a good deal on a flight can feel more like luck than strategy these days. Prices jump around so much it's like playing the lottery. However, flight-booking apps are designed to tilt the odds in your favor. They bring welcome discounts, track price drops, and find deals you might never have spotted. That said, there are strategies you should adopt to help find the best prices. Locking in too early, waiting too long, picking the wrong day, or just using the wrong app altogether can add unnecessary expenses.

Booking apps should assist by comparing fares, digging out hidden deals, flagging sudden price drops, and sometimes even helping you game the system a little. Tools like flexible-date calendars and even flexible-destination searches are ideal if your plans aren't locked in, and there's usually even more money to be saved if you're not fussy about red-eyes or flying on particular days.

This list isn't ranked, because the most suitable app for you depends entirely on your specific needs. Some are great for last-minute bargains; others shine when you plan months in advance. A few throw in credits or cashback, while others just keep things simple with low fares and helpful filters. We've pointed out what each app offers, the types of deals they're known for, and when they're most useful, with a primary focus on spending less when getting from A to B.

Skyscanner has long been an excellent search tool for finding great deals, and it remains one of the most reliable ways to quickly hunt down cheap flights. It claims to pull in billions of fares every day and detects significant price drops (at least 20% for a round trip), highlighting them as deals that may be of interest to you. But if it's a regular search you're looking to do, you can find flights on a specific day or open a calendar with estimated prices for the entire month. There's also a multi-city search tool where planning up to six legs of a trip is possible if you're off on a big adventure. Alternatively, if the destination isn't important, choosing the "Everywhere" option unsurprisingly shows everywhere it's possible to go from your chosen airport. It lists potential locations in order from the cheapest flights available to pricier options.

Once you've picked the dates, Skyscanner compares results from airlines in one place and lists them according to what it believes are the best options. However, you can sort this list in order of price, speed, or even arrange them by departure or arrival time, whatever matters most. You can also filter searches by number of stops, specific times or airline, flight duration, or even carbon emissions. Turn on price alerts or tap the heart icon to save a trip, and Skyscanner will track the flight and send a notification whenever prices move.

Momondo is managed by Kayak under Booking Holdings, two more highly reputable industry names. This backing has likely been a significant factor in the awards Momondo has received from the likes of Forbes, Time, and the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph. In 2024, SlashGear listed its website as one of the five best to use for booking a flight. However, the app is every bit as good — if not better, thanks to the many mobile-only deals you'll likely encounter.

It's a flight comparison app that searches a wide range of booking sources and travel platforms to show you a full range of prices. But what distinguishes it is its focus on budget carriers and smaller airlines that other search engines often miss. Additionally, it doesn't prioritize speed the way other apps might. Momondo takes its time to dig through discount sites and lesser-known platforms to find you the best deals. You can filter flights by variables such as trip length, layovers, plane type, and eco-friendly options. You can also track prices and get alerts when fares drop. And like other flight-booking apps, it doesn't sell tickets directly. It earns its money through ads and partnerships and sends you to airlines or booking sites to pay, which means no added fees for you.

Kiwi.com's Kiwi-Code search engine digs deep to pull in low fares and uncover hidden deals you might not have seen elsewhere. Like most flight-booking apps, a Kiwi search puts the cheapest results at the top. You can then look at the pricing table, which displays desirable days to fly, making it easy to sidestep overpriced dates. Even if you're booking on the day of travel, Kiwi can still find hidden savings. The app also mixes and matches flights from airlines that don't usually combine, and if there's a specific route you've got your eye on, tap the bell icon to start tracking. Kiwi will then send you a helpful heads-up the moment prices shift.

If you're not sure where to go, use the Anywhere Search to get a list of destinations ranked by the cheapest fare from your chosen airport. For complex trips, the Nomad feature builds multi-city routes designed to give you the best value across every leg. You can even fine-tune your search down to the tiniest details, from price and timing to number of stops. And if your trip gets disrupted, the Kiwi.com Guarantee covers you for things like rebooking or a place to stay while you sort everything out.

WayAway is available on iOS or Android and works like any other flight aggregator. It searches fares from over 1,000 airlines, including traditional, charter, and low-cost carriers, and pulls up the best deals based on your dates. If you're flexible, it'll show cheaper flights on alternate dates, and you can set alerts to track price drops. Compared to other apps, WayAway gives you a little more control with better filters. You can set it to show prices that include baggage fees only, but if you don't opt for that, it will clearly show how much extra baggage will cost on top, anyway. There's also a convenient "No layovers requiring visas" filter that you won't always see on other apps.

However, there is another key difference with WayAway: It claims to put real cash back in your pocket. A yearly WayAway Plus membership, which reportedly costs $100 but is often available for $50, includes a 7-day free trial. It offers members cashback on flights, hotels, and other bookings. However, you should check the WayAway website for current availability and pricing. If all goes well, it delivers cashback to your PayPal, with a waiting period of 30 to 120 days before it lands, and you need to earn at least $10 to withdraw.

Skiplagged is available for iOS and Android and is quite unique as it specializes in exploiting "loopholes in airfare pricing." One of its main tricks is hidden-city ticketing, which works by booking passengers on flights where the layover is actually your destination. Let's say you're flying from New York to Chicago. A direct flight may cost $400, but a flight from NYC to Denver with a layover in Chicago might only cost $250. You simply disembark for the layover in Chicago and leave the airport, deliberately missing your "connecting" flight and saving yourself $150. It's all completely legal and aboveboard. However, it only works if you have no checked baggage. It's not really suitable for round trips either, because airlines automatically cancel the entire itinerary if you miss a connecting flight, and it's only good for international travel if you have the right documentation and visas.

Skiplagged promises huge savings on flights, which can often be somewhere between 30% and 50%. This includes business class fares that are sometimes even cheaper than economy on regular sites. The app is free, with no membership fees or booking charges. It also alerts you to fare changes, suggests destinations automatically, and offers hotel deals with Skiplagged rates. Users can also earn up to $25 in travel credits for bookings. Additionally, you get a guarantee that covers ticket cancellations and route changes at no extra cost.

Kayak is one of those rare travel apps that actually makes trip planning a breeze. It pulls results from available airlines and over 1,000 travel sites, making spotting the best fares a simple procedure. Filters let you narrow results by stopovers or price, and cheaper travel dates are marked in green on the calendar for easy visibility. The Price Forecaster is a tool that looks at past and current trends and tells you whether fares are likely to drop or rise. You can set a price alert to get notified, while the Best Time to Travel tool uses these pricing trends to show exactly which dates are likely to be the cheapest. It also helpfully tells you when you should book in order to avoid fare spikes.

However, you can browse prices yourself with the Flexible Dates tool. It simply shows the prices for specific dates so you can browse at your leisure. You can search a whole month or just weekends, and it highlights the days that have cheaper flights. Explore lets you see where you can fly cheapest from your chosen airport to anywhere in the world. Then there's Hacker Fares, which combines one-way flights — often from different airlines — into a two-way flight that costs less than booking a standard roundtrip. Multi-city search builds itineraries across several stops, and if you book through the app, you'll sometimes see exclusive mobile rates and private deals, which can be especially useful if you're bundling a flight with a hotel.

Priceline is worth a look if you're open to some uncertainty in exchange for serious savings. Like most flight-booking apps, it features a flexible date calendar that helps flag the cheapest times to fly, and you can filter by stops, departure windows, and overall trip length to get what works for you. After that, things get a bit more interesting. The Best Price Guarantee adds a bit of security by refunding the difference if you spot a better deal within 24 hours.

But what really makes Priceline an interesting option is its Express Deals for flights and hotels feature. You'll know your departure and arrival cities and general timing, but the airline, exact flight times, and the hotel name are hidden until after you book. This little gamble can cut the price significantly more than any standard booking will. Pricebreakers is another saver, but it only applies to hotels. You'll see three hotel options with full details upfront, including location, rating, and amenities. After booking, you find out which one you got. It's an unusual way to make some savings and certainly a gamble that may or may not yield satisfactory results.

Hopper is one of the most popular flight booking apps around and a must-have for world travelers on a budget. It's known for its sophisticated price prediction technology, which claims to forecast flight prices up to a year ahead with an impressive 95% accuracy. Just enter your departure and destination cities, then select the month or approximate time you want to travel. Hopper will show a color-coded calendar displaying prices for every day in that month, highlighting the cheapest and most expensive days. After you pick your exact travel dates from the calendar, the app monitors the fare and sends you a notification if the price drops.

If you're not quite ready to book, Hopper offers a "Price Freeze" option. You pay a non-refundable deposit to lock in the current price, and if the fare goes up, Hopper covers the difference up to a set limit. If the price drops, you pay the lower fare. It's not a guaranteed win but can be worth it if you're booking near busy travel periods or expect fares to rise. On top of that, Hopper rewards you with "Carrot Cash," which is credit you earn every time you book through the app. You can use it as a discount on future flights, hotels, or car rentals.

Expedia regularly delivers big savings on flights to its app users through frequent sales, last-minute deals, and discounted bundles of flight plus hotel or car rental. Massive discounts of up to 70% are sometimes possible, with cheap airfares often the biggest contributor to bundled savings. That said, these types of offers aren't always available. If paying upfront cuts into your budget too much, too soon, Expedia offers payment plans through Affirm, giving you the chance to pay in affordable monthly installments instead.

The app's search filters are strong. You can easily find flights that suit your preferences, such as direct flights, number of layovers, baggage allowance, and seat selection. The app searches widely across more than 400 airlines and booking sites to help uncover the bargains you're looking for, and AI-powered price tracking will trigger a notification when prices drop.

Cancellation policies vary across airlines, but Expedia does offer a guaranteed 24-hour free cancellation window after booking. So, if you're one for filling in the wrong dates or changing your mind like the weather, you have ample time to recheck everything and avoid fees. It's also always wise to double-check flight routes and pay attention to transit times if you want to be sure of avoiding long layovers.

Trip.com is the premier app from the Trip.com Group, one of the world's largest online travel companies. It's based out of Shanghai, China, and is a particularly good app to have if you're flying around Asia on business trips or on some grand adventure. With solid partnerships in the region, flights are consistently low, as are the hotel and travel packages the app also offers, often undercutting other booking sites by a noticeable margin. But it's also a solid option for non-Asian international flights. Cheap fares pop up regularly — sometimes 5% to 15% less than what you'd find on apps like Skyscanner or direct from the airline.

App-exclusive discounts show up often, with deals that don't appear on the website at all. And after your first booking, you'll have access to members-only discounts and flash deals that you won't find anywhere else. There's also a Daily Deals section that sometimes offers substantial discounts if you're in luck. With every booking, you also earn Trip Coins, which you can use to get further discounts on future flights. You can earn extra coins through actions like leaving reviews and referring friends, while climbing membership tiers means faster earnings.

The Booking.com app isn't only about accommodation. Since 2024, it has connected users with over 500 airlines covering more than 4,500 destinations around the world. Its greatest strength is its integration with other travel services like the accommodation it excels in as well as transport. Users can bundle their flights with hotel bookings, airport taxis, car rentals, and even tours for savings. Searching is easy and intuitive, and you can quickly compare flight prices without hassle.

With frequent bookings, no matter if it's flights, hotels, or transport, you gain access to Genius discounts, which entitle you to savings on hotels and rental cars. And as you work your way through the levels, bigger discounts and bonus perks are added. In general, prices are competitive too, with deals that often beat or at least match the usual suspects. However, be aware of refund issues, surprise charges, and extra fees. These are all problems that users have complained about in the past.

Taking a leaf out of Booking.com's book, Agoda isn't just about hotel deals anymore. You can now book flights on its app, and the service holds up surprisingly well. It pulls in fares from over 500 airlines across 200+ countries and regions, and throws in discounts you won't find on the desktop website. Agoda keeps fares low by either reselling wholesale tickets at reduced markups or collecting commissions as a third party, giving you a better shot at finding cheaper deals.

The filtering tools are practical, too. You can narrow results by everything from price, flight duration, number of stops, and departure or arrival times. You can then sort the results by what really matters here — best value or lowest price. Another bonus is the PointsMAX program. Like other loyalty programs, you can collect points and cash them in later for flight or hotel discounts. That said, a few users have had issues with bookings or getting support when plans shift, so it's smart to confirm details with airlines yourself.

We searched through websites like NerdWallet, Forbes Advisor, and Upgraded Points to discover expert opinions. We also browsed finance blogs like Club Thrifty, travel blogs such as Inspired to Explore and TripJive, and discussions on Reddit, Quora, and niche forums like forum4travel to find out what regular people were saying. We decided not to rank the apps in any particular order, as each offers different ways to find deals — and what works well for one person may not be as effective for the next.