How to Find Student Discounts on Travel

It’s easy to have dreams of being a student traveler before you enter college and are suddenly faced with overpriced textbooks, buying your own food, and mounting student loans. But you don’t have to have a trust fund in order to travel when you’re a student. You just need to know how to make your student status work for you.

Students are entitled to all kinds of travel discounts all over the world, some based on age and some based on enrollment in a university. By choosing more budget-friendly destinations and making sure you’re getting student discounts whenever possible, you can enjoy the perks of traveling while you’re still in school.

Here are some of the ways to get student travel discounts.

• Proper Identification – Some so-called “student discounts” are really just youth discounts, so you’ll be able to take advantage of them until roughly age 26 whether you’re enrolled in school or not. You can get cheaper Eurail Passes if you’re under 26, and even Amtrak and Greyhound offer discounts to younger travelers. In all of these cases, you’ll need to have ID that proves you’re within the discount age, so be sure you’re carrying picture ID that has your birthdate clearly marked on it.
• ISIC Cards – If you’re currently enrolled in a college or university, then you might want to pick up an ISIC card, which is an international student ID. It’s a picture ID, so will serve as proof of your under-26 status, but it also entitles you to discounts that are only offered to current students. Carrying your school’s ID card won’t always work, because it’s not universally recognized.
• Student Travel Agencies – You can sometimes get great deals on everything from airfare to vacation packages by going to a travel agency that specializes in student travel. Going to an agency like that means you don’t have to do all the research on student travel discounts, since they know the ins and outs, but it can also mean that you won’t necessarily get the best possible price since agencies almost always take a cut. It’s worth checking for comparison purposes, however.
• Student Airfare Discounts – Not all student discounts on airfare have to come through student travel agencies. Sometimes you can get student discounts on flights directly from the airlines. More booking sites these days make it easy to keep track of airfare discounts like this, so find a site that lists student airfare prices and sign up for their newsletter. You’ll automatically know which flights are cheapest for students each month.

photo by Michael Oh