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When my daughter arrived on campus, they were selling some kind of a generic student discount card that is supposed to be good for everything from airfares to movies. It was twenty bucks. Are those things any good? We took a pass.

By George Meany on Wednesday, October 03, 2001 - 08:52 pm: Edit

How much were the passes selling for?

By burningman on Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 09:44 am: Edit

Good to see you still have your sense of humor, George! I'm just wondering if these cards are a ripoff, or if they can actually save money. Things like airline tickets are expensive enough that 20 bucks isn't very much to spend. But sometimes these "discount" deals aren't much of a deal at all - the discount applies to a standard fare, for example, and even the discounted fare is higher than special offers that don't require the card. (Kind of like the tire guarantees that gave you a credit on your replacement tire if your first one wore out too early. The problem was that the credit was pro-rated, and it applied to some hypothetical retail price that nobody ever paid. It was almost always cheaper to just buy a new tire on sale and forget the whole warranty deal.)

By George Meany on Thursday, October 04, 2001 - 01:14 pm: Edit

Before Sept. 11, college kids always searched high and low for airline deals. Now airlines are cutting rates bigtime--some as much as 50% for coach and business. It looks as though fares are going to remain depressed for some time.

I agree that discount cards are pretty much of a come-on. I view them the same as those "discount" offers that arrive with my credit-card bill every month--so much fluff.

By Dadster on Saturday, October 06, 2001 - 09:03 am: Edit

My daughter bought one of these her first year. She ended up saving a few bucks on movie tickets, but probably didn't even recover the cost of the card. The airline deals didn't work well, you had to go through a special travel agent. Even getting the movie discounts was awkward - you had to buy the tickets in advance or something.

A somewhat better deal are city entertainment books that offer deals at local restaurants. If the campus situation is such that kids have transportation and eat off-campus quite a bit, these can be more useful. A lot of the deals are buy one meal, get one free. There's usually a mix of restaurants of varying price ranges.

By GatorDad on Saturday, November 03, 2001 - 09:19 pm: Edit

I think the card originally mentioned is called Student Advantage. It's like most of these things - if you use it, you can save money, but often the "deals" aren't all that convenient.

By Sumguy on Wednesday, July 17, 2002 - 11:45 am: Edit

Student Advantage card is the way to go!! I get discounts on everything, check their web site out. I live in PA but go to school in DC so I take the train back and forth alot, and with this card it saves me 15% on every trip I take, it paid for itself the first time that I used it. well worth it CHECK IT OUT.....and no I dont work for these people....obtw---if you do get a Student Advantage card its only like 20$ a year but there is a way to pay for 4 years at a time which does save you money on membership.