How To Book Your Flight for Study Abroad

HOW TO BOOK YOUR FLIGHT FOR STUDY ABROAD

Booking your flight to go abroad feels much more important and stressful than booking a flight for any other purpose. That’s because it kicks off your adventure of a lifetime and what could be more invigorating! 

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There are so many booking websites, airlines and itineraries/routes to choose from. You could leave a few days earlier and take a long layover in a city you want to explore or you could take as close to a direct route as possible and leave to arrive right on time during the day you need to be there by. The possibilities are endless. 


There are a few things to consider when booking your flight abroad (you may want to share this with your parents especially if they are among the helicopter type):

  1. Your comfortability

  2. The cost


While it may be cheaper to fly for the shortest period of time on the day ASA says you need to leave by, maybe you have friends flying a few days earlier with a layover in Switzerland and you are more comfortable flying with them. If you can afford it, we say go for it! Comfortability matters. And it’s nice to be closer to your host city before you need to be there in case there are any travel delays. There are so many other options of getting from one country to the next in Europe and Latin America. It’s just getting overseas that is the hard part when there is a travel delay since the only transportation option is flying in an airplane…


Cost is another thing to consider during booking, because you don’t want to blow a lot of money for this flight abroad since you will be spending money every day for the next few weeks/months you are living in your host city and traveling around. The bottom line is you need a good balance of being comfortable with your flight and the amount of money you spend on it. This is why we recommend researching possibilities as early as possible to ensure you are all ready for when it comes time to book your flight abroad.


Some more tips:

First, make sure you receive the ‘go-ahead’ to book your flights from ASA!

ASA will email you all the information you need, such as the dates, airports, times, etc. Sometimes program dates aren’t confirmed yet!


Make sure you have all these important details handy when you book:

  • Dates: Arrival and Departure

  • Airport & Airport Codes

  • Timeframe

  • Websites



Dates

  • Pay VERY close attention to your ARRIVAL date vs. your DEPARTURE date

  • To arrive on the right day, you may need to leave the day before because of the time difference

    • Example: If ASA says to arrive on JANUARY 25th and you are departing from North America, then you should depart on JANUARY 24th (except if you’re going to Costa Rica) but ASA will make this super clear when we email you the instructions)


Airport

  • Make sure you are arriving to the correct airport, because some cities have multiple airports; ASA will tell you which airport to fly into

    • Examples: BCN (Barcelona), DUB (Dublin), EZE (Buenos Aires), LHR (London)


Timeframe

  • ASA will let you know a timeframe in which you should arrive so we can pick you up and take you to your accommodations

    • Examples: Arrive between 9am-5pm or arrive before 8:30am


Websites

  • ASA recommends to book directly with the airline whenever possible.

  • For alternate websites we recommend:

    • Student Universe: use the link in the video and promo code NEWFOR20 if you’re a new user

    • Google flights
      *This is not to say that other sites are unreliable or won’t potentially have better deals; these are just the sites we have found to be consistently reliable and have great deals!

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