Last Updated on September 16, 2026 by Betsy Ramsey
The only thing more fun than booking a trip is booking it at a lower cost – am I right? Today, I’m sharing some of my favorite apps and travel tools that help us save money or upgrade our experiences. Stop paying more than you have to and start checking out some of these tools today!
This post may contain affiliate links. These links provide a means for sites like NattyGal.com to earn a small commission when a reader clicks through and makes a purchase at no additional cost to the reader. See full affiliate disclosure in Privacy & Disclosures.
Price Trackers
Oftentimes, prices drop after you’ve already booked a hotel room or made an airline ticket purchase. But let’s be real, who wants to go back and check on a fare after booking? Two handy apps can do that for you.
Pruvo
Pruvo allows you to monitor bookings made on any booking platform. To get started, book your hotel with a free cancellation policy. Next, forward the booking confirmation to Pruvo using save@pruvo.com. The app will monitor your reservation, looking for better prices.
If a better price for your room and booking option is found, the app guides you through cancelling your existing reservation and rebooking under the new, more favorable rate. Best yet, the app is free to use!
pAiback
PAiback works similarly to Pruvo, but is specifically designed for airfare purchases. Currently, their service works with flights booked directly on Alaska, American, Delta, and United Airlines.
Submit your confirmation by email to ticketing@paiback.app. If a better fare for your flight is found, the app refunds the difference, less a 20% commission to your airline account. No savings, no charge.
The best part is that you don’t have to do a thing! You’ll have the same flight, seat, same booking number, and so on, but at a lower price. However, the one caveat is that you receive airline credit, not a refund to your charge card. I’m excited to try this the next time I book a flight.
Flight Alert Resources
What if you have yet to book your flights but are looking for great business class fares for your next overseas journey? That’s where services that track fares and award availability come into play.
There are many players in this category. The ones I’m most familiar with are listed below.
Thrifty Traveler Premium
Thrifty Traveler Premium is a subscription program offering deal alerts, exclusive discounts, travel tips, and contact with a community of seasoned travelers.
Their emails are terrific! They not only send out extraordinary deals for both paid and award travel, but they also include affiliate programs that you can use to book, show dates with high availability, and include popular award stay hotels at the destination.
Check out this deal from Seattle to Hong Kong for just 61,000 points each way. And on Cathay Pacific, no less. That their beer, brewed for business and first class passengers, is called a Betsy, makes me think the universe is telling me something!
Thrifty Traveler Premium also sends out hotel offers like the one below for the newly reopened and iconic Park Hyatt Tokyo, bookable for just 35,000 Hyatt points. My friends, cash rates are up to $1700/night, so this represents an epic bargain!
Seats Aero
Seats Aero offers both free and paid plans, and it is spectacular at finding award seat availability on long-haul flights! They support over 20 airline loyalty programs and also note which credit card programs transfer to selected airlines. Seat Aero also offers a handy upgrade seat finder for paid users.
Other Notable Flight Alert Resources
- Point.me – paid, many loyalty programs, no flexible date search
- Points Path – free, browser extension to use with Google Flights, limited loyalty programs
- Award Fares – free and paid, moderate selection of loyalty programs, many filters you can play with
- Daily Drop Pro – free and paid, a combination of deal alert notifications and an online search tool
Non-Refundable Bargains
If you have a lot of flexibility in your schedule, new platforms like SpareFare, Transfer Travel, and Roomer enable you to purchase nonrefundable travel cancelled by others at discounted rates.
A bit more risk is involved with these sites, but the savings can be astronomical. A Matador article cites a few notable packages:
- 6-day, $6500 value South African safari for $800
- 10-day, $12,000 overwater bungalow in the Maldives for $1900
Obviously, dates, number of tickets, room type, et cetera are set in stone. And while the services vet each offering, you do run the very small risk that the booking will not be transferable. If that’s the case, you won’t be charged, but you will miss out on your chosen adventure.
SpareFare
SpareFare offers flights, hotels, and packages for sale that were initially purchased by someone else who cannot use them. The offer below came up under “Hot Deals,” and yes, I did have to look up the location of Enfidha (it’s in Tunisia). But a little over $1000 for a week-long, well-reviewed resort vacation for two, including airfare? I’d give it a try if I lived near Manchester!
If you’re looking for something a little more mainstream, a round-trip from New York to Rome for $420 isn’t bad.
Transfer Travel
Transfer Travel also offers a range of flights, hotels, and packages. This all-inclusive stay in Cancun is a great deal if you’re free mid-October.
Roomer Travel
Unlike SpareFare and Transfer Travel, Roomer Travel specializes strictly in hotel rooms. The deal below caught my eye. We stayed at this hotel in 2023 and paid a nightly rate of $278. It was a great experience, and the location is ideal!
Point, Mile, and Reward Trackers
Points, miles, upgrade awards, and more, oh my! How do you keep track of it all?
Award Wallet
I’ve been an Award Wallet Plus member since it was first offered in 2007. While we’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship over the years, I still haven’t found anything that beats them in terms of tracking a broad range of loyalty programs (travel, retail, credit card, etc.). If you’d like to give it a try, signing up with the code free-gakzsx will get the first 10 first-time users a complementary upgrade.
The pros of Award Wallet include its ease of use and ability to track most programs. These include travel services (airlines, hotels, cruise lines, etc.), as well as retail stores, credit card rewards, and more. It is easy to use, although it does require some initial setup time, which depends on the number of accounts you have.
I like that you can manage the loyalty accounts for everyone in your family in one place. Their travel notification system is also helpful. We’ve learned of flight changes and cancellations via their alerts before even hearing from the airlines.
The main drawback is that their price increased dramatically (4x+) last year, with little in the way of innovation to support the increase. They seem to be trying. A concise and informative weekly newsletter has been introduced; however, I’d love to see the interface refreshed and some enhanced services.
Ultimately, competitors can’t compare with the breadth of program coverage that Award Wallet offers.
Card Pointers
Card Pointers offers both free and paid versions. They specifically track credit card programs and benefits, and it is a great option for those who don’t use loyalty programs but do use premium credit cards. With the paid version, the app will automatically add all eligible credit card offers to your card.
Card Pointers can recommend which of your credit cards is best to use at any given shop or location. They’ll also remind you when you’re on a website where one of your cards has an offer or bonus. And most importantly, they summarize the value you got from your card at renewal time.
How do you keep from leaving money on the table? If you have a favorite tool, I’d love to hear about it. If you know someone who might find this post useful, please forward it.
Thanks so much for your likes, shares, and follows! Until next time,
