Table of Contents
Points Miles and Bling (blog) contains referral or affiliate links. The blog receives a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your continued support. Credit Card issuers are not responsible for maintaining or monitoring the accuracy of information on this website. For full details, current product information, and Terms and Conditions, click the link included.
Here at PMB, we discuss the best ways to leverage your points to book premium cabin travel. But one of the most challenging parts of the experience remains actually finding award space.
Award space in business and first class is more coveted than ever and if the rare Cathay Pacific first class flight is what you’re after, then you’ll need to use every tool at your disposal. Yes, set alerts and track award space patterns, but receiving an email directly in your inbox with availability sounds useful, no?
What is Thrifty Traveller
Thrifty Traveller is a paid service that sends emails when it locates premium cabin award space for 2+ seats. You can also set your preferred airports and choose to only receive flight alerts from those cities.
On top of flights, Thrifty Traveller will send emails for usually low cash fares in all cabin classes. You can receive text messages for these fares as well, as they don’t usually last very long before the airline catches on.
Thrifty Traveller offers a Premium and Premium+, with Premium+ also including hotel alerts and hotel suggestions.
The price is $99.99 USD and $149.99 USD, respectively, and PMB readers receive $20 off. The discount appears only after adding to cart with code “PMB” attached.
What Thrifty Traveller is Not
Thrifty Traveller is not a service that sends custom alerts for your specified routes. So this is a service to be used alongside those, not as a replacement.
For example, say you’re looking for award space to Japan sometime this December. You’re can’t log in to Thrifty Traveller, set parameters, then receive emails when it finds that award space. Rather, you can set your home airport, but you’ll receive all award space emails. That includes, say, American Airlines to South America. With Thrifty, you’ll have to be on the lookout to see if the email matches where you want to go.
Who is Thrifty Traveller For
The person who benefits the most from services like Thrifty Traveller is someone who is flexible and open to flying just about anywhere if it’s a good deal. If you primarily want to make sweet spot redemptions and don’t care too much where you’re going as long as it’s on a day you’re available, then Thrifty Traveller is a perfect fit for your lifestyle.
Even if you have a destination in mind for a certain time, if you canbe flexible on the exact trip dates, you will still be able to take advantage of Thrifty Traveller alerts.
If you have fixed dates and only want to fly to a specific region with a family of 3+, relying on a service like Thrifty Traveller to secure award space can be nerve-wracking, since what you’re looking for may never show up. For these cases, you’re better off booking the best ticket you can that fits your family’s needs.
My Experience With Thrifty Traveller
I consider myself pretty good at finding award space. I’ve been doing this since 2018, I fly almost exclusively on saver award space and always cross the ocean in a premium cabin. I’ve taken my family to the Maldives in business class. If I can benefit from Thrifty Traveller, so can you.
In 2025, I booked two awards from a Thrifty Traveller alert and wished I had booked a third.
Last September, Thrifty Traveller sent out an alert that LATAM had a lot of award space available on the New York JFK route in business class, which is my preferred port and cost 50,000 Virgin Atlantic points. The dates aligned for my anticipated trip and I was happy to fly LATAM over other options like Avianca.
Similarly, I was planning an Asia trip for March 2026 for myself and my partner. In October, Thrifty Traveller sent an email saying that China Airlines had released a lot of award space on its new route from Phoenix to Taipei. I immediately snapped up 2 tickets for 72,500 Flying Blue points each in business class.
About halfway through 2025, I also received a Thrifty Traveller alert for Etihad A380 first class apartments award space between Abu Dhabi and Toronto for January 2026. I did need to return from India, but I hesitated and missed out. My travel companion had no such qualms and secured a ticket for 115,000 American AAdvantage points.
Thrifty Traveller Does Not Catch Everything
For any award trip, be sure to have multiple avenues in place to search for award space. Thrifty Traveller does not catch everything and should not be relied upon as the only source. Be sure to also set up alerts on other services and track award space as usual.
For a trip to Central Asia this September, I got an alert from seats.aero that Turkish business class opened up calendar-wide. This was for nearly all North American airports and lasted a few days, but Thrifty Traveller never sent an alert.
Takeaway
Thrifty Traveller is a service that notifies users when premium cabin award space opens up for 2+ passengers. Good flight deals on cash will trigger emails as well, and you can set your preferred airports.
Honestly, the service pays for itself if you book just one award based on an alert. Last year, I booked two tickets based on the emails. I’d recommend to try it out for a year, then decide whether to renew in year 2.
