There aren’t a lot of ways to save on airfare without breaking rules, unless you have access to a big company’s discount or are using miles. The days of Priceline are long gone. There are some modest discounts available on first and business class long haul tickets through specialty travel agents (as well as through American Express). These might be 5% – 10%, mostly on foreign airlines.
But if you’re looking to just get the cheapest fare, it almost always ‘is what it is’ outside of the occasional booking anomaly or ‘trick’ involving tickets issued in another country or combining airlines that don’t partner with each other.
It turns out, though, that anyone under age 25 is likely eligible for a discount on airfare – especially international airfare – of between 5% and 20% through Student Universe.
- Airlines want to sell as many tickets as they can at the highest possible prices.
- Once they do that, they want to sell leftover seats for something – it costs very little to carry an extra passenger once the plane is already going, once it’s staffed and gassed up.
- But they don’t want to publish lower prices that someone who would have paid a higher price then takes advantage of. They want to charge people willing to pay more a higher price, and then scoop up additional passengers at a lower price.
Credit: Alaska Airlines
Carriers use all sorts of techniques to accomplish this price discrimination. They used to use Saturday night stay and 14- or 21-day advance purchase requirements. Those are less prevalent now, replaced by basic economy fares to segment business and premium leisure customer from price-sensitive travelers.
Another technique is to offer special discounts to students, who tend to be price-sensitive – without making those prices visible to anybody else. Student Universe fares aren’t going to show up on Google Flights or Expedia.
- They work to validate whether you’re a student
- Which is basically going to mean looking at your age (18-25) and validate you through things like whether you have a .edu email address or can provide a recent class schedule or copy of student ID.
In poking around a bit (in my day job I work at a university) it seems that they aren’t always cheaper, but are usually a little bit cheaper and sometimes much cheaper. Also that many of their fares include checked bags, where similar airline-published fares may not.
They do offer basic economy fares but the savings on those aren’t great. You’ll find much of the savings where basic economy isn’t offered (or booking regular fares at basic economy prices). Their tickets are eligible for mileage-earning, except when booking basic economy where those tickets limit it.
Student Universe also runs several promotions, for instance:
On a Chicago – Dublin itinerary I’m seeing Student Universe $70 cheaper than booking direct with American, $3 cheaper than booking direct with Icelandair, and $77 more than booking with Delta. But booking Aer Lingus through Student Universe , including checked bag, is cheapest overall.
On Los Angeles – Tokyo, Student Universe is offering modest savings – $33 off United, $32 off Japan Airlines, $18 off Cathay Pacific – but Cathay starts off cheapest and Student Universe has a $100 off promo code for Cathay, generating a $337 roundtrip coach fare (and earning a $40 off code for next Asia trip).
There’s some really impressive savings on Dallas – Sydney, nearly $600 off American’s non-stop codeshare with Qantas. But the cheapest option is connecting on United and Air New Zealand, where Student Universe saves $157 versus booking direct and offers another $200 off promo code, bringing the cost down to $994 roundtrip (compare to Student Universe pricing on that Qantas non-stop of $1253 via American Airlines codeshare, or direct with Qantas for $1828).
They also have hotel deals, but I’m not sure these are going to be better than the private rates you’d get through places like HotelSlash (which don’t earn points, elite status credit, or receive elite benefits).
I don’t think about Student Universe often – it’s been 25 years since I’ve been 25 (that was even before I started this blog). In fact, it appears that they haven’t been mentioned here in 15 years. So it seemed worth flagging that anyone in their eligibility window ought to make them a regular part of airfare search, especially since their discounted fares aren’t going to show up in standard airfare metasearches.
Next month I may be flying in economy class from the US to Australia using 15k points — and no fuel surcharge type scam fee — and it will likely amount to the most uncomfortable miles flown per mile redeemed that I’ve ever had. If I do that US to Australia trip, then I will be doing it in the same month as I am using 30k points — and no fuel surcharge type scam fee — to fly in business class on two long-haul flights with flat-bed seats. Student Universe can’t beat that, nor can any of the other games I have played to drive down flight costs.
This post is a great example of how productivity at most “day jobs” is abysmal. Somebody can have a day job yet have so much time left over they can run a blog that generates 7 figures of ARR.
That’s why the only day job that gets any shred of respect is large law firm attorney whose time is billed meticulously with narratives specific to each client’s matter.
“Unintimidated” is a European who isn’t in on the US bank card referral revenue carousel in a big way?
There is a lot of not-so-meticulous billing time calculating by large law firm lawyers too, but the equity partners of such firms would rather not be challenged on their lawyers’ billing (in)accuracies or being found to be getting educated on the client’s tab.
We are all students or can be (https://www.asu.edu @ $25 per course with an .edu email address). These are “Cheap flights for students & 18-25s”. So student qualifies at any age. ASU courses are money well spent — for $25 you can get hundreds off on appliances, etc. Always ask if there’s a student discount; they are ubiquitous across Europe and pop up here and there in the US.
@Unintimidated — Wow, super off-topic, but ok… you remind me of prior commenter @Dick (and a few others) who would say silly stuff like you just did here. Hardly anyone ‘likes’ or actually ‘appreciates’ big law attorneys–because they are mercenaries, selling their souls to the highest bidder. Decent people do not aspire to be that. So, are you @Dick, like, did you pick a new name?
I used them years ago when I was in college in 2008. $400 RT ORD-AMS.