Jetsetter, StudentUniverse

Attention, Travelophiles!

Hillaire Billock once said, “We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment”. I agree whole-heartedly with this statement, and would venture to say that aside from requirement, this is the reason many students choose to study abroad during their time in college. At first, it’s all a whirlwind of excitement, choosing where to go, which courses to take, meeting other people who are going with you – but then the reality of shelling out the big bucks for airfare hits you. Then, all those places you want to visit over there via train? More money. The hostels you’ll stay in while visiting said places? Even more money. Paying for coffee, meals, and any other miscellaneous things? Forget it. Fortunately, there is a way to keep costs down.

Since beginning college four years ago, I have been turned on to several “student-friendly” travel outlets. Studentuniverse.com is perhaps the most well-known. They have been in operation for nearly 10 years, providing student discounts on airfares (with greater discounts for groups of 12 or more), hotels and hostels, rail passes, rental cars, and travel insurance. They recently expanded their target market to faculty, recent graduates and students aged 18-25. Their search engine provides travel date flexibility for up to three days. It is also worth checking out the GoingGlobal section of the StudentUniverse website, as they offer extremely interesting travel blogs by StudentUniverse staff members, hostel guides, and helpful travel tips related to every aspect of your trip, including space-saving while packing, cutting time at the airport, and ways to not look like a tourist when abroad.

To those who do not have study abroad plans on the horizon, but your travel dreams are bigger than your travel budget, Jetsetter.com may be the answer. Jetsetter is a branch of Gilt Groupe, Inc., the site offering discounts on high-end fashion. Jetsetter follows a similar blueprint, offering discounts on luxury hotels, cruises, and tours, some in popular tourist destinations, but many in places one would never think of. “It tempts you to visit places you never intended to, or were too financially strapped to consider,” The Washington Post states. A customer could select a destination anywhere from The Greenbrier, a luxury resort in the West Virginia mountains, to a sprawling waterfront property in Sri Lanka. “Jetsetter [is] more focused on discovery and experience,” CEO David Patterson commented, “we’re looking for something distinctive and memorable.”

The site also caters to those with a competitive side, due to the time constraints on offers for seeming once-in-a-lifetime travel opportunities. The sales typically last for five to seven days, and customers can hold a trip for 10% of the cost for 72 hours. The deposit can be used for that trip, or saved for a different getaway later in the year. For any given on-sale destination, Jetsetter provides several photographs and descriptions of rooms available, plus a calendar of available dates, many times for several months out.

When Jetsetter first launched, many were skeptical that the attractiveness of 30-40% off a trip to a luxury destination would cloud customers’ judgment. They could be fooled into paying a seemingly less price, when another discount travel site offered the same trip for an actual lower fee. However, this does not seem to be the case with Jetsetter – NY Times writer Michelle Higgins found that in an albeit not-so-scientific check of several private sales, those sites beat prices offered by places Expedia.com or Orbitz.com. One of the caveats of Jetsetter, though, is that it is a community accessible through invitation from a current member, or by putting your e-mail on a membership waiting list. However, a Google search for “Jetsetter + private sale + invite” yielded a site that provided Jetsetter and Gilt Groupe invitations.

Think of the savings to be had when combining a flight purchased from StudentUniverse and a hotel from Jetsetter! I suggest, when checking these sites out, to sign up for e-mail alerts about the cheapest flight options or upcoming destination sales to get a leg up on the travel competition. Veni, vidi, servi.