Amazon Sells $25 Student Flights as Travel Costs Rise

Amazon Prime is offering student members $25 flights home for the holidays.

The eCommerce giant has teamed with student travel platform StudentUniverse to make that offering on a limited number of round-trip flights, the company said in a Thursday (Nov. 30) news release.

According to the release, Prime Student members can visit the Prime Student x StudentUniverse page starting Dec. 5 to book tickets on select domestic flights for trips from mid-December and early January for just $25.

Just 3,000 tickets will be offered, 1,000 per day beginning at 6 a.m. PST on Dec. 5 and at midnight PST on Dec. 6 and 7.

After those tickets are claimed, StudentUniverse will run a trailing promotional offer, giving Prime Student members $25 off flights with a promotional code, the release said.

“As a mom to a first-year college student, I am excited to have my son home for the holidays,” Carmen Nestares, vice president of U.S. Prime and Marketing Tech at Amazon, said in the news release. “And as travel costs continue to rise, we’re happy to help make flying more affordable for Prime Students who want to spend this important time with family and friends.”

The announcement from Amazon came the same day that the Personal Consumptions Expenditures index (PCE) from the U.S. Commerce Department showed consumers spending more on travel.

“Headed into the waning months of the year, it seems that travel and experiences will continue to be a key area of spending, springboarding off a summer where PYMNTS Intelligence detailed that the number of leisure travelers grew by 22% this year compared to 2022,” PYMNTS wrote.

Still, consumers are mostly unfazed by the rising cost of travel, as shown this week in the Visa Global Travel Intentions Study. According to that report, there’s a wide awareness among consumers – 73% – of the rising cost of travel though just 6% of travelers said they plan to cancel or delay their plans.

Meanwhile, recent research from PYMNTS Intelligence has found that credit cards “continue to be the preferred choice” among consumers for funding their leisure travel expenses — an option preferred by two-thirds of respondents.

The use of cards has been embraced by consumers across all age groups: 76% of baby boomers and seniors, 53% of Generation Z consumers and roughly two-thirds of Gen X and millennials.