My Complete and Brutally Honest StudentUniverse Review (2024)
When I studied abroad summer of 2019, my university recommended booking my flight with StudentUniverse, a company I had never heard of. Since then, I have booked twelve flights with StudentUniverse for six separate trips spread across five years. In this post, I will give you an honest StudentUniverse review based on those experiences.
Disclaimer: All of these thoughts and experiences are my own. I was not paid or compensated in any way to provide this StudentUniverse review.
What Is StudentUniverse?
StudentUniverse is a flight search engine that aims to provide discounted flights, hotels, and tours to university students and young adults under the age of 26. That being said, anyone is free to use the platform to book flights, hotels, and tours. Non-college students will just not have access to every discount service available.
Is StudentUniverse Legitimate?
Nowadays, there are a lot of third-party flight search engines. A good portion of them are either a dysfunctional mess or a straight-up scam, so you are rightfully justified in wanting to do your due diligence by researching the company. The quick answer is yes. StudentUniverse is a legitimate and trustworthy company.
Why Is StudentUniverse So Cheap?
You may be wondering how they acquire the discounts posted on their website. StudentUniverse works by directly contacting airlines to negotiate discounted flight offers for students and youth. As a result, they can provide some flight options that are cheaper than what may be seen on Google Flights or Skyscanner.
StudentUniverse Flights Review
Over the past five years, I have booked several round-trip flights to Tahiti, Canada, Paris, Seattle, London, and most recently, Paris (again for the 2024 Roland Garros tennis tournament (my second time) 🤩), through StudentUniverse. Based on the seven separate occasions that I have utilized StudentUniverse, I have found them to be quite reliable.
If I book my flight on a third-party website, I’m the type of person who will immediately use the booking reference code in the receipt to check if my reservation exists on the airline’s website. Every time I have done this with StudentUniverse, my reservation has shown up on the official airline’s portal promptly.
Whenever my flight itinerary changed or was completely canceled, at no fault to StudentUniverse, StudentUniverse notified me immediately via email. For me, this was reassuring because staying updated on even the smallest changes is important for building my travel itinerary.
In terms of my review of how things went on the day of my flight’s departure, I have not experienced any problems. I’ve always checked in easily and my ticket has never suddenly not existed on the day of departure. Therefore, I have had a fairly positive experience booking flights through StudentUniverse.
✈️ Click to sign up and get $20 off your first purchase with StudentUniverse!
Review of StudentUniverse Customer Service
In general, I would say that StudentUniverse’s customer service is both responsive and helpful. They have various customer service lines available for people located everywhere, so if there’s an emergency, you can call them.
And although I have not called them during an emergency, I have called them because of canceled flights or to reconfirm my new flight itinerary. Each time, customer service was pleasant and supportive. When my flight was canceled, they helped me understand the process for booking flights with my flight credit. Then, when the flight I wanted was not an option, they helped me find an alternative.
Oh, and a perk is that you can avoid long wait times by opting to have them call you back when it’s your turn in the queue. This is what I did. Unlike other companies, they will call back, twice if you do not answer the first time. Thus, I would say that StudentUniverse’s customer service is a solid 4.5 stars out of 5.
✈️ NOTE: Nervous about flying? Check out my useful guide that’s packed with tips for navigating airports and having a smooth flight experience.
StudentUniverse Complaints
It is no secret that no company is perfect, especially not in the travel industry. One of my big issues with StudentUniverse is that utilizing their flight credit is a tricky process. It can only be utilized under very specific circumstances. Let me give you an example. When my flight was canceled, my flight credit was split up based on the ticket price for each respective airline: $150 for Alaska Airlines and $113 for American Airlines.
To use your flight credit, you have to call StudentUniverse when you have identified the flight you want. After calling customer service, I discovered that the flight credit is only good for one ticket with the same airline. This means that if I have $150 in-flight credit and the flight I want to book is $120, I lose $30 if I book with my flight credit.
Furthermore, you are only allowed to book a ticket for the same class as the one you originally booked. For context, I originally booked a student ticket in economy class with American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. This made finding a flight worthy of using my flight credit challenging. My new flight had to be a student ticket in economy class, with American Airlines or Alaska Airlines, and close to or over the amount of my flight credit to minimize the amount of wasted credit.
Additionally, it’s important to note that every fare includes a non-refundable service fee of up to $25. I know this is part of being a sustainable business, but it can be annoying if your flight is canceled. If this sounds complicated to understand, it’s because it is. This experience was the only time I was frustrated with StudentUniverse.
Advantages of StudentUniverse
The good news is that there are notable perks to using StudentUniverse to book your flights.
1. Discounted Flights
One obvious advantage is that they provide discounted flights. Each time I’ve booked flights with them, it is because they had the best deals I could find for flights. Does StudentUniverse always offer the best-discounted flight prices? Of course not. Sometimes StudentUniverse has the best deal and other times another search engine does. You should always compare prices and flight plans from various flight search engines to find the one that works best for you.
2. Double up With Flash Sales
This is Lake Bled in Slovenia, one of my favorite places in the World — definitely should be on everyone’s bucket list!
Another perk I have found is that StudentUniverse frequently does flash sales. These are short windows of time where the company promotes a promo code to save you an extra $10 – $40 USD on your already discounted flight. This may not seem like much, but a little free money is better than nothing! Saving those few extra dollars can mean adding in a day trip from Ljubljana to beautiful Lake Bled in Slovenia or going to Moorea from Tahiti! 🙂
3. You Pay What You See
A benefit of StudentUniverse is that the price you see for the flight route is the price you can expect to pay. The price already factors in both the flight base fare and the added taxes and fees we all hate. Thus, the number we see is what represents the total cost, assuming you don’t knowingly add upgrades.
I find this to be a bonus because I hate reaching checkout and seeing other fees and taxes have been added. Suddenly, I have to pay an extra $100 or more from the price that was originally listed. It’s honestly refreshing to just be straight up told the cost…unlike Airbnb which bamboozles you every time with the cleaning and service fees.
4. Schedule Flexibility
A feature I genuinely appreciate on StudentUniverse’s platform is its flexible scheduling. They make it super easy to see the differences in the total price for different departure and return dates.
Furthermore, the cheapest options are marked with a diamond for quick reference. This makes planning your itinerary simple, and sometimes you can save more than $100 by leaving a day later. And yes I know this feature is fairly commonplace now, but in 2019… this feature was not. So, I like to give credit where credit is due.
Should You Use StudentUniverse?
As someone who was formerly a broke college student and is now simply a broke adult, I’m always looking for ways to save money on traveling. For me, booking through StudentUniverse has been a relatively good experience, minus when I had to use flight credit. I think the platform has several benefits and there isn’t a lot to complain about.
Therefore, if you’re a student or young adult, I would recommend creating an account. It’s worth trying it out because you quite literally have nothing to lose. You may find cheaper deals and you might not. There is no guarantee, but at least you will have given yourself the potential to save money.
P.S. In case you’re wondering, I do not have the Student discount anymore since I’m not a verifiable student. This means to the platform, I’m just a regular adult under 26. Therefore, I don’t receive the added-on student benefits that sweeten the pot.
Regardless of this, I still use StudentUniverse in some capacity for nearly every trip I take. Why? Because they genuinely have some of the best deals out there. And, people under the age of 26 can still receive some of the student discounts. You can tell which student deals aren’t available as the deal will show up as “locked” until you verify your student status.
Does StudentUniverse Verify Student Status?
To get the most out of StudentUniverse and access all of the discounted flight prices available, you will have to first make a student account. They do require you to verify your student status by uploading a picture of one of the various forms of identification: student ID card, paid tuition bill, current class schedule, etc.
From my experience, the process is pretty quick and easy. Within 15 seconds of uploading a picture of my university ID card, my student account was approved.
✈️ NOTE: StudentUniverse also offers Youth fares for people aged 16-25, but if you are eligible, a student account will offer you the most deals.
Tips For Using StudentUniverse
If you decide you want to give StudentUniverse a try for booking your next trip, I have some recommendations for you that have helped me in the past.
✈️ Incognito Tab: If you are tracking the prices for flights, be sure to use an incognito tab. Like other flight search engines, this will help prevent them from tracking your interest and possibly increasing prices.
✈️ Amazon Prime Student: If you are a college student, you can create or link your Amazon Prime Student account to StudentUniverse. This will give you up to an extra 10% off on flights and at minimum, an additional $5 off.
✈️ 24-hour hold: If you see a flight that you might be interested in, you can call StudentUniverse. They will hold any fare for 24 hours without any payment. This is convenient if you are figuring out some last-minute details but don’t want to miss a good deal.
✈️ Check with the official airline: If you want some extra peace of mind, view the official airline’s website to confirm what is included in your ticket, like baggage and seat choice. Also, do this if you want to make a particular meal request.
Wrap-Up: My Honest StudentUniverse Review
My honest review is that StudentUniverse is an awesome flight search engine to use for discounted flights. It can be extremely beneficial to students but offers discounted flights available for everyone. Of course, it is not perfect. However, I still would, and frequently do recommend it to all of my friends. I believe the money saved in discounts outweighs the small non-refundable service fee you have to pay.
At the end of the day, everyone wants to save money and get a good deal while traveling! So, I believe it’s worth giving the platform a shot. Regardless of whether you choose to use the platform, I hope this StudentUniverse review has helped you learn more about the platform, and I wish you the best of luck in your next travel escapade!
✈️ Click to sign up with StudentUniverse. You will receive $20 off your first purchase with them!
Traveling Soon? Here Are the Travel Resources I Use!
🏡 Accommodations: I use Expedia or Booking for hotels and Hostelworld for hostels
✈️ Flights: I find the best deals on StudentUniverse & Skyscanner
🗺️ Travel Insurance: I suggest Safetywing as an affordable option
🤿 Tours & Experiences: I love to use Viator and Get Your Guide
🚗 Car Rentals: I recommend DiscoverCars for all your rental car needs!
📱 E-Sim: The company I’ve had the most positive experiences with is Airalo
Use code ‘KRISTI7012’ for an extra $3 off your ESIM from Airalo!
More Travel Hacking
- 🛋️ Nearly Free Housing: Interested in saving a crap ton of money on housing accommodations? Read my in-depth review of this beloved hospitality platform.
- 🇪🇺 Europe: Traveling to Europe for the first time? Read about how to easily find the best routes for inter-Europe travel here.
- 🧳 General Travel Tips: Want to see a list of all my favorite travel resources that I like to use when traveling? Head on over to my travel resources page — lots of good information over there! 👀
