There are several student travel websites out there that claim to give you discounts based on your student status and will help you save if you go through them vs. a mainstream travel agency site. Being an avid travel and student of many years myself, I have done the research and know not all student travel sites live up to their claim of saving “poor college students” money. I will share with you the two top student sites I recommend the most and another one that is not student based, but does the homework for you in comparing the prices of all the airlines.
Student Universe:
I love this site. Over the years, I’ve purchased several airplane tickets to countries abroad through Student Universe, saving me a lot of money that would have been spent on other sites. Student Universe recognizes the passion many students possess in traveling the United States and the world for vacation or study abroad purposes. They’ve hooked up with many airlines in reserving seats that will belong to students only. When you do a search on SU, you can find out if there are any student seats left on the flight you are inquiring about. In order to prove your student status, you will need to sign up with your University’s email address. If you’ve recently graduated, or work at a University you are also eligible. Although I have only used the flight feature, they also offer student discounts for hotel, car, train and more.
STA Travel:
STA Travel is really neat because they specialize in travel packages and vacations for college students. You can find discounts on cruises, vacation packages and even just airline tickets alone. If you get a group together, you will get an even greater discount. What I really love about their site is the ability to connect with other students who also share a passion for traveling. If you click on STAtravelers, you can meet students from around the world who can give you first hand feedback on the best travel options for the location you desire. Upon researching prices through them, I noticed their flights tended to be the same price as other sites. However, their vacation packages were literally hundreds of dollars less than other sites. For example, on all the dozens of sites I researched, a plane ticket alone to Mexico costed $700. With STA Travel, they offered me a 4 night stay plus airfare for under $700 total. Definitely go through them if you plan on doing a package. If you can get a group of 10 together, you can actually travel for free!
Booking Buddy:
I used to do endless searches on individual travel sites all over the net trying to find the best deals on flights. I’d go from Priceline to Travelocity, to CheapOAir, to American Airlines over and over to see if the prices changed or if I just changed my flight by one day how that would effect the price. Then I stumbled across a site I bookmarked one day and am so thankful for finding! It’s called bookingbuddy.com. What you do is enter your itinerary once onto their site, then you click on the icons of all the travel sites I just mentioned (and more) and they will do a search based on the info you gave Booking Buddy. Wow, what a lifesaver. It’s not a student site but it can definitely save you hundreds of dollars by using their feature. While Student Universe has always been the cheapest in the past, Booking Buddy was able to show me that Priceline had a deal going on for the flight I needed.
Try out all these sites and see what works for you. Another tip is to sign up for the frequent flyer miles of whatever airline you end up using to rack up the miles so that one day in the future you can take another discounted flight!
For hostels or hotels, you’ll want to pick up a copy of the Lonely Planet. If you do not wish to pick one up, ask in the Lonely Planet forum at lonelyplanet.com. Another great resource that helps students find affordable stay options is hostel.com.
