Student Universe Review: Is It Worth It?
posted by FindAirlineCards.comAs a student, you’re going to find that you’re going to get a lot of discounts with a lot of things, including travel. If you have come across the site, StudentUniverse.com, I wanted to tell you a little bit about what I found out about it when I was trying to book an airline ticket.
I’m going to give you an example below and show you how other websites have fared. From there, you will be able to use your own judgment. Take a look at 3 of my examples below and you can see exactly how the airfare matches up and if its worth checking out.
Example #1: LAX to ORL on a Wednesday PM / round trip 7 days
- Student Universe $312 via US Airways
- US Airways $312 [cheapest]
- AirTran $319
- Delta $459
- Frontier $411
- United $469
Example #2: NYC to DTW on a Saturday AM / round trip 7 days
- Student Universe $167 via US Airways
- US Airways $167 [cheapest]
- Delta $221
- Spirit $219
- Continental $345
- American $221
Example #3: DFW to SEA on a Tuesday PM / round trip 7 days
- Student Universe $318 via AirTran
- AirTran $318
- Alaska Airlines $369
- Delta $332
- Midwest $401
- US Airways $394
NOTE: I used Kayak to compare all the other airlines not using a student discount.
Now the funny thing that I soon realized is that you don’t get a Student discount at all. In fact, you can get the same deals on any other site. I did 3 examples as you can tell and every single example matched up to another airline. I’m not sure if the website is a front for students to use it, or what.
You don’t have to prove that you’re a student either, which I don’t get. I thought for sure that when I was booking my flight that I would have to show some sort of ID and I didn’t.
Overall, if you’re a student, I wouldn’t highly recommend that you stick with a site like this. Sure, they are going to be able to scope out the best deals, but you’re going to do just as good with any other site, so don’t be afraid to check out other comparison engines.
A final word of advice is to check the airline direct as this is going to be your best bet possible when looking to get the cheapest deal possible.
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July 29th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Thank you for taking the time to review our website. As a person who works at StudentUniverse,
I would like to take a moment to respond.
Our site offers discounted airfare for college students, faculty, and youth (18-25). We negotiate directly with dozens of airlines to get the best deals for students. In addition to these student fares, we also will offer published fares directly from the airlines themselves. Basically, if we don’t have the cheapest flight available for a student fare, we make sure students get the cheapest flight we can find from the airlines directly. The examples on your blog highlight this; our student fare may have sold out, so we went and got the least expensive option instead.
We feel that if we can offer a student the least expensive options for them, whether with one of our deals or the cheapest found anywhere, we’ve done our job.
I do want to note that for student fares we do verify your student or faculty status. We don’t make you buy a card to prove as others do, so it’s free.
We do offer students hotels, tours, rail passes, basically everything a student needs to travel. As in your blog, we encourage students to check around to get the best deals.
Phil
August 1st, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Thanks for the comment Phil. I only tested a few selections but I’m sure, as you said, there will be great deals available for students, so be sure to check out Student Universe when you look for anything travel related! =]