Holiday Air Travel
if your student travel plans involve flying home or elsewhere around the Christmas holiday, use some smart tools to plan your Christmas air travel and take advantage of student discounts.First, build the Christmas air travel toolkit:
- Priceline's holiday travel calendar
- Student travel airfare finders
- Mark Kahler's "airport shopping" budget flight planning
Start with Priceline's holiday travel calendar, which shows us that December 9 and 20 and January 3-4 seem (all thses dates are somewhat guesstimations, of course) to be peak travel days ($$$) in 2008; December 17-18, 21, 25-26 and 30, and January 1-2 are "off-peak" airfare days ($$), though still spendier than normal, and December 22-24 and from January 5 (which is a Monday) onward are low /normal fare days ($). Choose a low-normal day -- even if you get a student airfare, it's still going to be the best day(s) to fly. (If you can't fly on a low-normal day, consider driving or taking the bus or train -- you get student discounts on Greyhound and Amtrak -- more on all that below).
Check an aggregator for the best airfare deals on those days, and compare the cost to that of a student airfare (remember that deals exist just for students, even at Christmas).
For instance, student travel agency STA if offering a very fair fare right now as a Christmas travle special: $43 one way domestic flights. Not bad. There are plenty of other airfare deals for students around the holidays that may work for you -- go straight to the STA airfare special or see all current student airfare specials.
About's Guide to Budget Travel, Mark Kahler, tells us that we may find a great deal at a smaller airport rather than a hub. He uses a Cincinatti-Birmingham example -- by driving 100 miles to Lousiville, KY, instead of using the Cincinatti airport, he saves $218 (from $306 to $88 round trip). If you drive a guzzler, calculate gas prices before making this a must-do.
Greyhound Discounts
As far as we know, the usual Greyhound student discount of 15 percent applies over the Christmas holidays -- but you can't really reserve on Greyhound, so be prepared to be flexible. If you live in the boonies, this may mean hanging out by the side of the road with your bags until the next bus comes by... Know that you do need to be a Student Advantage member, but you don't have to have the actual card in hand (like if you buy it online the day you travel).- All About Greyhound Student Discounts
Learn more about all the cheap bus options in the US, too:
Amtrak Student Discounts
Amtrak student discounts of 15 percent are bonus any time of year and, as opposed to Greyhound, you can reserve. If you wait until the last minute -- well, train stations are okay places to hang out and wait for the next train if you have to.. And trains are waaay cooler modes of transport than buses.- How to get Amtrak student discounts
- Now available to US residents: Amtrak passes
- All about traveling on Amtrak
Driving in the US
Okay -- no discounts if you're driving. Do make sure that road trip is as cheap as you can make it without totally depriving yourself, though:- Road Trip Planning 101
- How to calculate gas mileage (and find cheap gas)
- Top 5 Money Saving Road Trip Tips
- Road Trip Food
- US Maps and Atlases
- US Hostels by State
- All About Couchsurfing
Avoid Air Travel Stress!
A final travel tip: don't let the travel stress you -- you will get there.Air travel de-stress tips:
- Preparing for Air Travel
- Packing for Airport Security
- Airport Rules
- Packing Light
- Where to Get Travel Sized Tubes of Liquids and Gels
- How Not to Lose Your Luggage
- About Oversold Flights and Bumping
- About Delayed Flights
- Sleeping in Airports
- About Travel Anxiety and Fear of Flying
"A good holiday is one that is spent among people whose notions of time are vaguer than yours."
-- J. B. Priestley
