How to Find Insanely Cheap Flights with Pomelo Travel

Roundtrip flights to Paris for around $250… Cancun for $190… Norway for $334… these are all real travel deals from Pomelo Travel that have landed in my inbox recently. They’re just too good to pass up! In fact, I just bought roundtrip tickets to Bali for about $450 per person—usually over $1,000!

How would you like to get free emails with these crazy flight deals every week?

I don’t remember now how I found out about Pomelo Travel, but ever since I have told everyone I know about it. I’m not sponsored (although I should be at this point!)

Using Pomelo Travel, Jake and I got ROUNDTRIP tickets to Bali from the United States for $450 per person which we booked through Skyscanner. Usually, it’s about $1000 per person, if not more.

It was so cheap that we convinced my husband Jake’s whole family to buy it as well so now we get to go to Bali together as a family.

What is Pomelo Travel and How Does it Work?

Pomelo Travel is run by a team that scours major airline sites daily and uses smart algorithms to find unusually low fares. They focus on finding deals on international flights leaving from the U.S., including “mistake fares” where airlines accidentally price flights really low.

You get email alerts for free, or even earlier and more frequent alerts if you upgrade to Premium. With Premium, deals arrive up to an hour before free subscribers see them.

They don’t reveal exactly how they find these deals, but it’s a combination of algorithms they’ve created and knowing where to look on airline websites.

After they find those deals, they choose which ones to send to their free subscribers and which ones to save for their Premium subscribers. Premium members also get to filter deals by their home airport.

As long as you’re flexible and willing to wait for a good deal email to come around, you can save a TON of money on flights. They report that the average subscriber saves between $300-$800 per ticket on premium international flights.

Are the Deals that Pomelo Travel Finds “Legit”?

Yes, Pomelo Travel is a legit company and the deals they find are real, although if you don’t act quickly when you get the email, the deal is likely to disappear!

I can vouch for this personally as I’ve bought quite a few flights after getting a deal email from Pomelo, including flights to Bali, Paris, Nice, etc.

Is Pomelo Travel Worth It?

Yes, Pomelo Travel is definitely worth it for anyone who wants to save big on flights and can be flexible. Frequent travelers and people willing to stay flexible about destination and dates have reported saving $300-$800 or more per ticket on premium international flights. You can go with either the Free version or the Premium version and still get amazing flight deals sent to your inbox almost daily.

I have the Premium version, which is a great option if you travel more often or if the destination you want to visit is super far away. Plus, it’s really easy to share a Premium plan with friends and family, which I talk more about in the “Premium Plan” section below.

The Pomelo Travel Free Emails for Subscribers

With Pomelo Travel, you can sign up for free emails right away. You don’t need to give any info besides your email to get free alerts, and Premium lets you get personalized deals for your airport.

I signed up for that over 6 years ago and became obsessed with the kind of deals to tons of different destinations that I was seeing every week:

Not every deal will work for every airport, but they list the main airports where they found the deal and ALL OF THEM ARE ROUNDTRIP PRICES!! Most deals are from major U.S. airports, with options for domestic destinations and peak travel seasons too. It’s seriously such a temptation for me.

But it’s also proof that if you want to travel, it does not have to be expensive.

If you’re planning a trip to Europe from the USA check out these 3 steps we follow if there’s not a deal on Pomelo Travel.

After listing the places where you can find the deal, they also show you exactly how to book the flights yourself. Booking instructions are provided in each email.

They usually recommend using Google Flights or Skyscanner for booking (and I use these tips if I can’t find a deal.)

The Pomelo Travel Premium Email Subscription

Every time you get a free email, it will list at the top some of the deals that you missed since you aren’t paying for their premium subscription:

I think that the premium subscription is worth it! Recent Premium prices are $49 per year, or $29 per year if you catch their sale, to get personalized emails for the airports that you depart from. You’ll get the best deals straight to your inbox up to an hour before free subscribers.

But I recommend trying the free emails for a while if you’re not sure.

And these crazy travel deals will open up a whole lot of wanderlust and the opportunity to experience new cultures around the world so be ready for that.

The Yearly Sales of Pomelo Travel

Every year they run a few sales, in case you want to save even more money! If you are signed up for the free emails, then you will be notified when they are having a sale. That’s when you can grab Premium for $29 per year instead of the regular $49.

You don’t need a premium subscription to get value—yearly sales make Premium even cheaper.

A Little Premium Subscription Hack

We upgraded, as a family, to the premium subscription when they had their New Year’s Sale.

Pro tip: We only pay for one subscription for all of us! We created a new email address to sign up, then anyone who wanted the emails just had to set up email forwarding to their main email address.

And while planning your trip to Europe, make sure to avoid the $1000 mistake we made on our trip!

The Pros of Using Pomelo Travel

You Can Travel for So Much Cheaper

The most obvious pro of using Pomelo Travel is that you’ll be able to save a ton of money on flights and have more money to travel in the future.

You Can Be More Spontaneous With Your Travel Plans

Maybe you hadn’t planned on traveling to Chile, but a seriously amazing flight deal pops into your email inbox and all of a sudden it sounds like the perfect place to go!

All experienced travelers will tell you that the number one way to save money while traveling is to be really flexible about when you fly and where you fly!

You’ll Get Budget Flight Deals & More Expensive Flight Deals

With Pomelo, most of the emails you’ll get are going to be economy, however, they find great deals for more expensive travel, too.

They even sometimes send out emails that tell you which credit card miles could get you a good deal.

The Cons to Pomelo Travel

It’s Only for Flights Out of the USA

Most deals leave from the USA, which has to be my number one con because I don’t actually live in the US, I live in France! If I lived in the US, I’d definitely be using Pomelo more often.

We go back to the States once or twice a year, so I still use it then. If you live elsewhere, you can still score deals for visits home or for friends and family visiting you!

You Have to Be Quick

The deals are time-sensitive—if you wait too long after receiving an email to actually book the flight, the deal could be gone already. This happened to me recently because we were waiting for another person to give the go-ahead to buy the tickets.

The best way to prepare for this is to coordinate with your travel squad in advance! For example, you could decide that if you find a deal to a certain destination for under a certain price, then definitely book it. Act fast when you see one you want!

If You Need Specific Dates, Pomelo Can’t Really Help You

Most deals require flexible dates—Pomelo may not be ideal for those with very specific travel days. Although I’ve tried many times, I can’t ever seem to get a great Christmas flight deal on the dates I need them and to where I need to go. So I end up having to find those deals on my own with Skyscanner.