All 15 hacks
Hack 14 of 15 · The fine print that changes the price

Youth and student fares

If you are under about 26, a dozen airlines sell you a different, cheaper fare — and no comparison site will show it to you unless you ask for it by age.

No riskOff by defaultInformationalPer-leg pointers
How the planner finds it
  1. The carriers on your plan are matched against a list of airlines that publish youth or student fares: the Lufthansa Group (Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels), Air France and KLM, SAS, Finnair, TAP, Aegean, Iberia, Air Canada, Eurowings, Turkish, Emirates, Qatar and Etihad.
  2. Each match names the age band — usually 12 to 25, sometimes to 29 or 31 for student fares — and links to the airline's own booking page, because the fare only appears once you enter the age in their search form.
  3. Alongside those, the plan points at StudentUniverse and the ISIC card, which unlock youth fares and rail discounts the airlines do not publish themselves.
  4. It is informational by design: these fares cannot be searched programmatically, so the plan tells you exactly which legs to go and re-check by hand.
  5. It is the one hack that is off by default, because it is noise if nobody on the trip is under 26.
Worked example
Which legs to re-check by hand
from our data
Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels
Youth fares, ages 12–25
Air France
Youth fares, ages 12–24, many long-haul routes
SAS
Youth fares, under 26, most routes
Emirates
Student fares plus extra baggage, ages 16–31
Everywhere else
StudentUniverse and an ISIC card

The plan will not price these for you. It tells you which of your legs are on carriers that sell them, so you spend five minutes on the two that matter instead of thirty on all six.

When it does not work
  • These fares are not searchable by the sources this planner uses, so nothing here is verified. Every row is a pointer.
  • Eligibility moves constantly and varies by route, and some fares want proof of enrolment, not just an age.
  • Youth fares are frequently more restrictive on changes and bags than the public fare at the same price.
  • They are not always cheaper. On a competitive route the public sale fare often wins.
  • Off by default: turn it on in Advanced or nothing appears in this section.
Risk
No risk

One booking, normal rules. Nothing here can be taken away from you.

On your plan: “Before you book”, inside “Take it with you”, as a per-leg pointer with the airline's own link.Setting: Advanced → Hacks → Under 26 (off by default).under 26 flightsstudent flightsISIC card
Keep reading

The rest of “The fine print that changes the price”

One booking, normal rules. Nothing here can be taken away from you. Every hack on the list gets the same treatment: how it is found, a worked example, and the catch.

See it on a real trip

Give it your cities.

Two trips free. It runs all 15 of these, tells you which ones found nothing, and stamps every price verified, cached or estimate.