Cheap Airfare Step 6: Back to School

Putting that student or teacher ID to good use by potentially shaving a bundle off your airfare using specialty student and teacher discounts on plane tickets

Important point to understand from the outset: there's no guarantee that a "student fare" will be the cheapest one available. Seriously. In these days of deep discounting and fire-sale prices, you'll often fare better just searching out a cheap ticket the way the rest of us who can no longer pass for the picture of the guy on our old college ID cards do. (Start here to do that.)

But here's where student fares come in real handy.

Most cheap fares have a maximum length of stay built in.

Usually it's 30 days. That just ain't long enough, whether you're studying abroad or simply taking a few months to bum around Europe. (Though sometimes you'll find one weighing in at nine months, which might be plenty.) Others are only good for travel from a certain date to a certain date, and that "to" date falls well before you plan to come home again.

However, there are some special air tickets designed for student needs that might be worth the extra expense. I'm talkin'

long-term or open-ended airfares

that'll let you traipse around the Continent for three or four months, or

study abroad

for a year (yes, go for a full year; don't bother signing up for this namby-pamby single semester stuff—you'll thank me later) without having to know yet what date you'll finally drag your sorry ass back Stateside for the fall semester. (Hint: try for three days before classes start again; that should be enough time to do laundry, get in some quality time with the folks, pack up your CD and DVD collections, and make your way back to campus.)

Those kind of open-ended tickets are available to anyone, of course, but usually they come at a premium—and when I say "premium" I mean four figures, and the first one ain't necessarily a "1." For students, you can get the same open-ended deal for much less scratch. Your friendly neighborhood travel agent (if you can find one not put out of business by the Internet) should be able to help.

But for real bargains,

go straight to the student travel experts.

Since such outfits as Aussie-born STA and Mass-based Student Universe specialize in backpacking students, they're adept at finding rock-bottom rates for all folks in high school, college, grad school—just about anyone under age 26, as well as teachers, though they'll search great deals for anyone.

Unfortunately, there's little competition in the student travel market these days ever since 2002, when STA swallowed up its longtime rival, Council Travel. Here's hoping more of the many tinier student specialist firms out there will rise to challenge STA and force everyone to start slashing prices even lower for cash-strapped students. The recent rise of Student Universe brings hope.

Where to find Students and Teacher Discounts

Student Universe

(www.studentuniverse.com) - The leading competitor to STA has gained significant ground since it went online in 2000, offering airfare discounts and open-ended tickets to traveling students. Shop both before picking one.

STA Travel

(www.sta-travel.com) - Leading student travel agency, though they've started resting on their laurels—rather than ferreting out the best deals, they tend to stick with the long-term arrangements with a few key airlines. Fiddle with dates to find a good fare.

Council on International Educational Exchange

(www.ciee.org) - CIEE is the preeminent study abroad group, and even though STA has since swallowed the old Council Travel student travel agency, this site still has student-oriented bargains.

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