Travel Discounts for College Students
Photo by tylerdurden1Got an itch to travel? Several airlines offer special programs or discounts for college students, and while none of them will likely make your next trip free, they can result in a travel discount or make it easier to reach that frequent-flyer travel reward more quickly.
Discounts for College Students - Travel by Air
Bonus miles are nice, but the most important thing to a student is the bottom line — the cost of the trip. Luckily, students have access to exclusive travel deals; sites like StudentUniverse.com and STA Travel specialize in offering travel deals — both domestic and international — for college students. These sites require some sort of general verification that you are a student (my .edu email address sufficed). I recently purchased a round-trip ticket through StudentUniverse, and one of the nice features of the ticket was that it was refundable for something like $75 — much cheaper than refunding a ticket issued by the airline itself.
A word of caution, however: these sites do not always offer the best deal; in fact, many times I find that I end up booking with the airline directly. If you are looking to book a last minute trip, keep in mind that many airlines offer special weekend fares that are valid over the next one or two weekends; these can be great deals if you’re looking to travel Friday/Saturday and return Monday/Tuesday. Check a site like AirfareWatchdog for the latest offers. Bottom line: you should certainly take the time to consult other search engines like Kayak or Orbitz.
Discounts - Travel by Train
If you are looking to travel by train, Amtrak participates in the Student Advantage program; the Student Advantage program is a student discount card that costs $20 and provides discounts at various national chains. Once you have purchased your Student Advantage card, you are entitled to 15% off Amtrak rail fares. It is questionable as to how worthwhile the Student Advantage card is overall, but if you only use it for Amtrak, to fully recoup the initial cost, plan to spend more than $134 during the course of the year to make it worth it.
That being said, though, do not blindly trust that the Student Advantage card offers the best discount for students — there are other ways to save money traveling on Amtrak. Amtrak almost always has discount codes that can be found on the Internet which can sometimes beat 15% (and don’t require you to buy a card in advance), so do a quick search on google for discount codes before you book your trip. The FlyerTalk.com Amtrak Promotion thread can be particularly helpful.
Discounts - Travel by Bus
While not quite as glamorous as travel by plane or train, travel by bus can often be quite economical. Like Amtrak, national bus chain Greyhound participates in the Student Advantage program, offering a 15% discount off bus fares for card holders.
Discounts - Hotels
Finally, even though this is not a student-only discount, if you are trying to find a place to stay, I highly recommend using a well-informed Priceline bidding strategy. Priceline is the site that lets you “name your own price” for travel — if your bid is satisfactory to them, you can score some amazing deals. Whether you are looking for a one star or four star hotel, Priceline can be hard to beat when you use aggregate information on the successful bid prices of others. (When using sites like Bidding for Travel or Better Bidding, remember to return back with your own experiences to help the community!)
Students may also consider hostels when traveling, which, especially in Europe, can provide a comfortable and safe place to stay at a relatively cheap price.
Special Frequent Flyer Programs
Several airlines offer sign-up bonuses for college students or accelerated rewards. For example:
- Southwest Airlines has its College Rapid Rewards Program. Under the program, you’ll get 4 credits for enrolling, and then you’ll earn 4 credits for each round-trip. You have to sign up through the College Rapid Rewards page; existing Rapid Rewards accounts don’t count, and you may have trouble opening a college account if you already have a Rapid Rewards account. That being said, the college program makes obtaining a free flight feasible for students. Find out more information on Southwest’s program.
- American Airlines offers 500 bonus AAdvantage miles for signing up through its college page, which also contains information on student discounts. That’s definitely not much (500 miles is worth about $5, and you can only make use of that if you acquire sufficient miles) — still, free is good. Find out more information on American’s college offers.
Honor Roll: AirTran U Standby Program
Probably one of the best college student programs offered by an airline is the AirTran U Standby Program. Under the program, anyone between the ages of 18 and 22 can fly standby (i.e. space available) on AirTran flights for between $69 - $99 dollars.
To take advantage of this offer, simply head to the airport more than two hours in advance and ask to be added to the list. If there is space on your flight, your name will be called at the gate prior to departure; if there isn’t space, you can get added to the list for the next flight, and if you never clear the stand-by list, your money should be refunded. You can’t have any checked luggage, but you can earn a reduced amount of A+ Rewards credits.
This is a particularly nice program if you’re flexible with your travel plans. Find out more information on AirTran’s college program or check out where they fly.
Graduating? United has a gift for you
United Airlines has a special offer for graduating students — 10,000 Mileage Plus bonus miles, which is about 40% of the way to a free domestic flight. All you have to do is send them a copy of your transcript, your United Mileage Plus account number, and your email address, and they will deposit the bonus miles. The offer is not limited to undergraduates, and it appears that you can earn the bonus each time you graduate from an institution. United.com offers more details on how you can claim the bonus. If you’re graduating, why not grab some free miles?
None of these deals are that earth shattering, but can certainly help make travel somewhat more obtainable. Travel does not have to be that expensive! If you know of any other travel deals for students, please leave a comment!
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Great post. I didn’t know about most of these offers and discounts. I might take advantage of the United offer for graduating students.
On a side note, the link to “well-informed Priceline bidding strategy” is pointing to the admin page for that post instead of the actual post itself.
BGS — Definitely. The amazing thing about the United offer is that they don’t even really require you to have been a United customer in the past. 10,000 miles isn’t a lot, but isn’t trivial, either, especially with all of the ways out there to earn miles these days — combine with a credit card sign-up offer, for example, and you’re in the range for a free ticket to Hawaii from the continental US.