Deal Wings vs Going (Scott's Cheap Flights) vs Thrifty Traveler: which is best for Utah?

Pricing comparison

• Deal Wings: $39.99 / year (Pro). Free tier available with one priority destination.
• Going Premium: $49 / year. Going Elite (premium-cabin deals): $199 / year. Free tier available.
• Thrifty Traveler Premium: $59.99 / year. Thrifty Traveler Premium+ (premium cabin): $89.99 / year. No free tier.
• Dollar Flight Club Premium: $69 / year. No free tier.

Deal Wings is the cheapest paid tier of any major U.S. flight-deal service. Free-tier coverage is also broader at Deal Wings than at Going: Going's free tier covers a smaller subset of departure cities, while Deal Wings' free tier offers full alerts for one priority destination plus optional teaser alerts for any other destination.

Coverage: how many Utah-relevant deals?

This is where the math diverges sharply. A nationwide service that emails 200 deals per month sounds great until you filter for SLC or PVU departures. In our internal tracking over the past 12 months:

• Going: ~12–25 SLC-relevant deals per month (depends on the season).
• Thrifty Traveler: ~10–20 SLC-relevant deals per month.
• Dollar Flight Club: ~8–18 SLC-relevant deals per month.
• Deal Wings: 60–200+ SLC and PVU deals per month, every one usable.

Why the difference? Deal Wings scans every route out of SLC and PVU continuously. The nationwide services scan major hubs and propagate deals only when they happen to include a Utah origin in the affected city list, which excludes most flash sales, fare wars, and regional carriers.

What each service does best

Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights)

Best in class for international long-haul mistake fares: when a TPA-to-Tokyo error fare lands, Going's team often catches it first. If you live near a coastal hub (NYC, LAX, MIA, SFO), Going's coverage is excellent. For Utah travelers, the international long-haul coverage is real but rarely actionable without a positioning flight.

Thrifty Traveler

Strong premium-cabin and award-travel content. Good newsletter, good blog. Same nationwide-coverage problem for Utah travelers: most of their best alerts originate from cities Utahns don't live in.

Deal Wings

Built specifically for Utah travelers. Every deal departs SLC or PVU. We track all major and ultra-low-cost carriers (Delta, United, American, Southwest, Frontier, Breeze, Allegiant) and surface fares using our own four-layer anomaly detection rather than human editorial review, which means alerts arrive within minutes of the fare appearing, not hours.

Speed comparison

Mistake fares disappear in 2 to 6 hours on average. Delivery latency matters:

• Deal Wings Pro: instant (typically under 60 seconds from detection).
• Deal Wings Free: 20-minute delay on the priority destination.
• Going Premium / Elite: typically 30 minutes to 2 hours, varies by editorial review.
• Thrifty Traveler Premium: typically 1 to 4 hours after detection.

Deal Wings runs on automated anomaly detection rather than human review, which removes the editorial-review delay entirely. The tradeoff is that nationwide services sometimes write more polished commentary alongside each deal; Deal Wings keeps emails short and skimmable.