Going — which is formerly known as Scott’s Cheap Flights until 2023 — released its annual lists of top airports and airlines for flight deals in 2026 in the United States; and it includes the ranking of the best airports in the United States for deals using points and miles based on Going’s own award-space and deal data.
Top Airports and Airlines for Flight Deals in 2026 in the United States
For example, the ranking of the top ten airports for redeeming miles and points for flight deals as follows is based solely on the frequency of points and miles deals sent by Going for each airport:
| Rank |
Airport |
Number of Deals |
Strengths |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | New York — JFK | 95 | High-value redemptions on Singapore, Cathay Pacific, and Emirates, as John F. Kennedy International Airport is number one for another year |
| 2. | Boston — BOS | 69 | Strong award space to Europe on carriers such as Iberia, Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, SWISS, Aer Lingus, and Virgin Atlantic |
| 3. | Los Angeles — LAX | 63 | Good repositioning hub for award flights to Australia |
| 4. | Chicago — ORD | 62 | Occasional rare first-class award space to Tokyo via All Nippon Airways |
| 5. | Dallas-Fort Worth — DFW | 55 | Great for Qatar Airways Qsuites and Japan Airlines premium cabin awards |
| 6. | Seattle — SEA | 52 | Occasional rare first class award space to Tokyo via All Nippon Airways, plus first class deals to Hawaii, as Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines compete with international flights at this airport |
| 7. | San Francisco — SFO | 46 | Strong award space to Europe, and the only airport in the United States to have a direct flight to Vietnam via Vietnam Airlines, bookable with Flying Blue |
| 8. | Washington, District of Columbia — IAD | 42 | Washington Dulles International Airport has strong award space to Europe |
| 9. | Atlanta — ATL | 38 | Strong award space to Europe |
| 10. | Miami — MIA | 35 | Strong availability to Spain on Iberia, high concentration of business-class deals, and strong coverage throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, as Miami International Airport is the biggest mover on this list as it edged out Newark International Airport, which was number ten last year |
The aforementioned list is based on the frequency of deals, which is defined as the number of points and miles deals that Going released for each airport between Tuesday, July 1, 2025 and Tuesday, June 30, 2026.
The ranking of the top six airlines for flight deals for domestic airlines within the United States as follows is based solely on the frequency of deals that were released by Going for full-service airlines ranked domestically in the United States:
| Rank |
Airline |
Number of Deals |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | American Airlines | 646 |
| 2. | Delta Air Lines | 609 |
| 3. | Southwest Airlines | 594 |
| 4. | United Airlines | 576 |
| 5. | Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines | 515 |
| 6. | JetBlue Airways | 165 |
Budget airlines — such as Breeze and Avelo as two examples — were excluded from the aforementioned list to allow for a direct comparison among legacy carriers and full-service airlines.
The ranking of the top ten airlines for deals for international flights as follows is based solely on the frequency of deals sent by Going for each airport:
| Rank |
Airline |
Number of Deals |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | United Airlines | 1,850 |
| 2. | American Airlines | 1,820 |
| 3. | Delta Air Lines | 1,717 |
| 4. | Air Canada | 533 |
| 5. | British Airways | 533 |
| 6. | JetBlue Airways | 495 |
| 7. | Lufthansa | 407 |
| 8. | Iberia | 290 |
| 9. | Air France | 286 |
| 10. | Icelandair | 267 |
“A single cheap fare doesn’t tell the whole story”, according toe Willis Orlando, who is a flight expert at Going. “We built these rankings around what actually matters to travelers: not just the price of the ticket, but how deep the discount is and how often a good deal comes around. An airport that has one amazing fare a year isn’t as valuable to travelers as one that delivers solid deals every week.”
Methodology
Going analyzed greater than 45,000 routes across airports in the United States that were sent as Going deals between Tuesday, July 1, 2025 and Tuesday, June 30, 2026 to develop rankings for the top airports in the United States to fly from domestically and internationally. A fare is deemed a “deal” when it meets the standards set out by the Going Grade, which is the proprietary scoring system of Going that ranks each fare against the historic pricing for that specific route, with top-scoring deals falling multiple standard deviations below the average price of the route.
Airport rankings are based on a weighted score factoring in…
- Average price — 30 percent
- Average deal savings on full-service airlines — 35 percent
- Deal volume — 35 percent
…giving a fuller picture of where travelers found the best combination of frequency and savings. Airport lists are based on enplanement data from the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States, which classifies airports into hub-size categories. Each list represents either ‘large and medium hub’ or ‘small and nonhub’ airports. Airports that are located in Hawaii and Alaska were included in the domestic rankings.
Additional information and lists — including the Members’ Choice category, which is based 2,365 responses received from a poll of Going members — are included in this article.
Final Boarding Call
Securing deals with airlines from airports is more difficult in recent months due to the significant increase in the price of aviation fuel, which has been affected by the conflict between Iran and the United States.
Also, numerous factors weigh in as to what constitutes a deal. I am based in Atlanta; so the deals are not as prevalent for me as they are for people who are based in New York or Los Angeles — but American Airlines had the best deals for a while; and sometimes Delta Air Lines has ridiculous redemption deals with SkyMiles to such places as Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, of which I took advantage.
I am not sure how many of these deals included Basic Economy fares, which seem to continuously become more restrictive because airlines want you to pay more for the tickets that they sell…
…but Going is one of the providers of deals that offers ways to save money on flights — ever since Scott Keyes founded the company in 2013 — and we could use all of the help we can get, which is the main reason why articles here at The Gate With Brian Cohen offer deals on which you can save money or earn miles and points…
Photograph ©2026 by Brian Cohen.
