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I will be travelling to and fro from Hyderabad (HYD), India to Berlin (TXL), Germany. Duration: 20th May to 20th August of 2013 (3 months) Class: Economy Class (as low as possible)

Where can I find best student deals? Which airlines offers best student deals?

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  • Note that many airlines offering student deals only offer them for domestic students. – gerrit Nov 10 '12 at 13:09
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    I actually was under the impression the days of student airfares were over. Not so? – MastaBaba Nov 10 '12 at 17:18
  • Not really. if I am not wrong – Surya Nov 10 '12 at 17:21
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There used to be a time when student fares were more common, but this is no longer the case. Due to increasingly strong competition, airlines offer fairly competitive rates as standard. As always, standard rules of not flying on days that are peak times as well as trying to book your flights much in advance help. It also depends on what sector you're flying since different airlines offer different discounted rates for students. My recommendations especially in your case would be:

  • Check the standard airfares using Kayak or SkyScanner to see which are the cheapest dates to fly using their tools which allow you to use flexible dates / check airfares for a whole month.
  • STA Travel is a worldwide travel agency that specialises in flight and travel bookings catering to the student and youth market. Check the STA Travel website specific for your country to see whether their flight booking engine shows you cheaper fares, since they sometimes offer discounted fares exclusively for students booking through the STA Travel website. (In addition to that, STA Travel often offers to price match any other fare that you find online - but a price match doesn't necessarily help you since you can get the same fare elsewhere anyway).
  • Specifically among Indian airlines, Jet Airways offers discounted fares under a scheme called eduJetter where students are offered free extra baggage allowance as well as other benefits. While the fares themselves aren't any cheaper, the extra baggage allowance itself could be 'worth' something to you compared to a competing airline where you have pay more for the same allowance. These fares can only be booked from Jet Airways offices in your city or through select travel agents (they can tell you if you call them on their customer care helpline), not ones booked online.

What I'd reckon would get you the cheapest fares though is standard advice: be flexible as far as possible about when you want to fly, and use flight search comparison engines to find specific days in which there are drops in flight prices.

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  • Jet Airways offer is over! I called them. – Surya Nov 12 '12 at 3:56
  • Jet Airways doesn't always run the offer. They usually run in the summer months for students joining universities in fall season. – Ankur Banerjee♦ Nov 12 '12 at 14:53
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When I started traveling 20 years ago, I sometimes took advantage of student air fares. I believe they are much less common nowadays. At the time you had to go to a travel agency to book tickets. I think today it should be the same. Because the agent has to check somehow if you are a student. The best way to find out about these tariffs is to make a local inquiry. Ask the "international affairs" or "student mobility service" (or whatever it is called ... ) of your local university. They should be aware of such tariffs (if they exist). You can also check with the international airlines flying from Hyderabad. If you don't find information on their websites, do not hesitate to call their local offices.

But in any case, I would recommend that you start searching through kayak.com . There you will find the best fares. Play a bit with the dates. Maybe you can arrive or leave a bit earlier or later. Moreover, you can check the prices for flights to Frankfurt. By train its 4 to 5 hours from Berlin. Maybe it's worth it. Train fares and schedules can be checked at bahn.de. Also check the Rail&Fly offers.

You can also use flightfox.com. There ou have to pay a fee and some "experts" will search the best prices for you.

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I've been flying in Europe for some time now, I have never seen a student deal.

But, that does not mean you won't find a good deal. What I would do is, I would first look at scanner sites as given in earlier answers, and then look at the original website of the airline to compare prices.

Also, you may want to aim for nearby cities/countries, as the distances in Europe are fairly short, and inter-country transportation is smooth and affordable. Thus, you can aim for any of the German airports as well as Belgian, Dutch and Czech airports (You can of course aim any of the European airports, but these will be the closest ones). Then it would be trivial to reach Berlin by another flight / train / bus in a reasonable price. But still, don't get your hopes up with the student discount.

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