Students do have it pretty easy a lot of the time, and having our own travel agent exclusively for us tax-dodging penny pinchers is really convenient. Or at least it would be, if they actually got you the cheapest prices available. Which they don't.
When I spent my third year of uni abroad, I booked my flights through STA purely because the others I was going with had all done that, and so arranging seats on the same flights etc was a lot easier than if I'd gone with someone else. Although, being the suspicious person I am, I did some poking around online and found almost identical flights for £50-£100 cheaper. Stupidly though, I did this homework after I'd paid STA.
However, every single aspect of the service was so good that I didn't really mind. Although I'm ashamed to admit it, at STA they do baby you a little bit and do all of the boring admin stuff on your behalf. When I wanted to change the date of my return flight, for example, all I did was ask if that was ok and within 2 days I had an email from them offering me half a dozen new flight times/dates to choose from. And the fee to change my flight was only something like £30.
I'd recommend doing things over the phone with them or by email, as the branch tends to get quite busy. The annoying thing is that the majority of the students clogging up the queue probably have no realistic intention of travelling, they're just sick of the Scottish winter and wishful thinking starts to kick in. I'd definitely use STA again, though. read more