After my first shock – the moment I realized how much it will cost me to fly home for the winter holidays - I started expending my perspective from Expedia to the rest of the internet. I have discovered a few things that might be useful for other international students as well.

AGGREGATORS

My First “discovery” were travel aggregator websites. This websites do not sell tickets directly, they just look for other agency websites and list you the cheapest prices. Aggregators look through websites like Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity or airplane companies that are not always covered by agencies.

Some of the biggest aggregators are: Mobissimo, Kayak, CheapFlights, Qixo, Sidestep, or Belgian Travelprice.

A good trait of these aggregators is the fact that they are automatically looking for the prices of nearby airports, for example: for a flight from Brussels to Berlin, it can automatically look for all Berlin and both Brussels airports. This kind of automatically search is, except for the savings, a significant saving of time.

While using aggregators, it is necesarry to pay attention to each aggregator website through which the agencies are looking. For example: kayak.com does not search through Expedia, so if you are looking for the cheapest prices, you should check out Expedia yourself.

Some reviewers claimed aggregators not being as good for Europe as for the US, but it is still possible to find cheaper flight ticket through these sites. It takes some time, patience and basic IT skills and you can fly home for the winter holidays with some extra pocket money.

Aggregators such as Rumbo could cover famous low-cost companies such as Ryanair, though it only says ‘Low cost’. You can only see which low company has the offered flight in the midlle of your reservation. On the other hand Ryanair, Germanwings or WizzAir (a company that covers Eastern Europe) often offer conveniently arranged search results on their own websites.

DISCOUNTS FOR STUDENTS

As a student (undergraduate, master and PhD) you can have a discounts for a flight. One of probably the most famous associations for such benefits is STA Travel. It often occurs that every country has its own branch office. Joining in then, by a yearly membership fee, can sometimes get you significantly cheaper airplane tickets than those offered by the general agencies.

Another important discount to consider is the “Student Universe”-website, which offers you considerably cheaper flight tickets as a student or faculty member. Student Universe has no limitations on age neither does it ask for a membership fee.

Flying home for Christmas is very often considered as the only “must do” trip for international students, though student budgets are traditionally small and every Euro is counted carefully. We do hope this article will help you to save some money on a trip that enables you to buy some presents for your family and friends this year. Have a nice trip! |

All links are also on The Voice’s website, under ‘Links’, ‘Travel’.