How to avail student discount airfare

Most students are on a budget, and need to find a fare that suits them most. This is where the student discount airfare comes in so useful. These tickets can be bought directly from airlines, through travel sites or sites specializing in student travel.

If you are a student you should log onto sites like Student Universe. This site requires proof of identity and insists that all buyers provide their school or college e-mail so that their credentials can be verified. Once this is done the site offers students big discounts.

You can also call sites like STA or Travel Cuts. These sites not only make online bookings but also do offline bookings. However, to make use of their facilities a student needs to buy an International Student Identity Card.

A third place to check student airfares is travel sites like Orbitz. These sites not only provide discounted student airfares but also provide good deals on domestic airfare. You may end up finding a regular deal where you may save more than on a normal student ticket.

The same holds true of airline sites, which put up cheap air tickets for sale. You can buy them and save more money than you would save from a discounted student ticket.

As a student, you should plan your travel early, especially if you know your vacation dates. This gives you the advantage of buying a ticket at a lower price because most airlines and travel agencies provide discounts on tickets that are booked well in advance.

You should also be a little flexible in deciding your travel dates. Often, you will find that tickets bought during the weekdays are cheaper as compared to those bought on weekends.

You can do all this if you plan your travel early. The students, who wait till the last date to make a booking, very rarely succeed in getting big discounts.

Thanks to discounts, domestic airfare has become more affordable

The domestic airfare is fixed by the airlines keeping in mind their costs and the destinations to which they fly. The airfare is not very flexible but the airlines do modify it from time to time keeping in mind the rush of passengers. Most airlines lower their fares during the off season; some airlines provide a slightly lower fare in their non-peak hour flights.

All airlines now have a site where they post their fares to attract travelers to buy tickets in advance. They also post the discounts available on different flights, making it possible for a traveler to get the best possible fare.

The launch of low cost carriers has increased the competition in the market. The traveler today has a choice to take a flight that charges much lower fares as compared to the top flight airlines. The reason for this is largely the scaled down services that low cost carriers offer.

Travel sites comprise another channel to buy domestic air tickets. These sites have entered into deals with individual airlines and sell their tickets at attractive discounts. Sometimes, these discounts may be better than the ones that are being offered by the regular airlines.

A few travel sites have their own search engines that visit the databases of various travel and airline sites and display the best available fares. This has become another popular way to buy domestic air tickets online.

The choices available to travelers don’t end here. There are sites that try and get an air ticket at a price quoted by you. These sites match your price with the price offered by an airline and buy a ticket on your behalf. You also have no say regarding the date or time of the flight.

But these choices have made domestic air travel easier and more affordable. More and more travelers in the US and Europe are buying their tickets online.