With many people starting to make their summer travel plans, it’s a perfect time to mention that students and teachers can often get lower airfares than the rest of us if they know where to look. It feels like STA Travel, which has been around for decades, isn’t discussed much these days when everyone does all their travel research on the internet, but they are still worth a look.
I’ve used STA Travel many times in the past, although mostly through their in-person offices, which I don’t see as much anymore. Still, you can see on their website that they still offer great deals on airfare and even hotels and hostels. If you are shopping around for a flight and you know the best fares you can get elsewhere, you should try STA Travel to see if they can beat it.
One-way flights seem to be their specialty
Being totally honest, STA Travel doesn’t always have the best deals, and in fact you have to get a bit lucky to find a substantial discount using their booking service. Your chances are best if you are looking for a one-way flight because the airlines often know that some flights are much more popular in one direction than the other in a certain time of year.
For example, on their main search page you’ll see they have round-trip flights to London (from the US) starting from US$797, but if you click the one-way tab you’ll see that their one-way flights TO London start at only US$325. I’ve experienced this myself when I did a RTW trip in 2005, where I found STA’s prices to be far lower than anyone else on certain one-way flights. Since they also discount hostels and hotel rooms, along with some other things, it’s worth a look if you are a student or can somehow claim to being a “teacher.”