StudentuniverseReviews of studentuniverse.com

Scammers. I made a booking with seat selection and paid in full. At first, they didn't acknowledge my payment. Eventually they got in touch with my booking details - but no seat selection. And they refused to refund the money for the seat selection I didn't receive.

I purchased a flight through TripAdvisor on April 22, 2025 as I have done many times without incident. I purchased a one-way flight on Aer Lingus through Student Universe from Edinburgh to Dulles for flight June 23, 2025. I was very careful to purchase the refundable flight for an additional $75.77. I did not read the refund language thoroughly as I’ve booked refunds on every flight and trip without issue. To make a long story short, I had to cancel my trip and this flight. To my surprise and horror, they refused to work with me in getting my refund back because they said I didn’t meet the qualifications of their Refundable.Me policy. I went through a month of stress and sleepless nights and ended up losing the entire price of my refundable ticket of $1,046.56, which I could not afford to lose. I think I was in disbelief that I couldn’t get my money back. Students use Student Universe for overseas trips. My advice to those students who purchase tickets through Student Universe is to not buy the additional insurance because there are so many loopholes to jump through you probably won’t get your money back anyway. Some examples to get a refund are: 1) you literally have to die or have someone on their list die and show proof; 2) you are laying in a hospital bed but must show detailed proof from your doctor; 3) your house burns down and you have to prove that as well. I know a student couldn’t afford to lose $1000. I further advise skipping Student Union altogether and purchasing your ticket directly through the airline. There’s a reason these third party agencies offer a flight a few dollars cheaper than others. Once they get your money, they have no intentions of returning it. It’s worth paying more for your ticket in the long run, trust me. I learned a valuable lesson in booking with Student Union, a third party agency. I will never again book except through the airline. I loved the ease of using TripAdvisor to book my flights and I booked United same date and they refunded my money the very day I cancelled. As information, Aer Lingus flight June 23 was full so they got paid twice for one seat just so Student Universe could get their cut. I hope the money Student Universe got from my ticket was worth it. If I could have given Student Universe a 0 star, I would have. Advised to Student Union. Good customer relations is very important to maintaining a successful business. The Refundable.Me policy you adhere to needs to go and be replaced with a more customer friendly policy. It’s not fair to your customers and creates hard feelings especially when you use it as a loophole to keep a customer’s money.

Flight was cancelled and I was never contacted, resulting in missing my connecting flight. No refund offered. No assistance offered. Absolutely terrible. Will make sure that no one I know uses this service.

Deceiving layout of plane. Paid extra for seats I thought was exit isle (according to the layout they showed) but it wasn’t.. wasted money for nothing..

It found me a great deal to see my friends during stressful semester in pretty short notice at that, it’s something I appreciate to alleviate some stress during the hurricane that is nursing school.

Quick bookings to Europe that were cheaper than the other travel sites and carriers.

Under Australian consumer law businesses must provide receipts for purchases over $75. I purchased my airfares (over $4K) with my credit card through Student Universe in January and was sent a receipt showing I paid in cash. The receipt was for the wrong amount paid. For travel insurance purposes the receipt needs to be accurate and show that I paid using credit card with the last 4 digits of the card on the receipt which is usual practice for travel receipts. Also the receipt sent did not include the cost of the seats they charged me for so my credit card statement in no way matches what I paid to Student Universe. I contacted Student Universe and requested a proper receipt showing method of payment and correct amount paid. They sent me an INVOICE for the correct amount however it's in USD and not AUD. It does not include tax information paid which is illegal. I have called and emailed numerous times only to be told I will get the receipt within 24 hours. Today I called and was told they can't send a receipt because it's on their old system. I don't believe there is no proper record of my payment and it is illegal and fraudulent to not provide a proper receipt in Australia.

Spent $1538.42 for no travel. Terrible customer service. Any apparent ticket price savings are a false economy. No valid tax invoice for the full amount. Many emails, many phone calls. Despite 3 months notice, no refund for a medical cancellation despite provision of a medical certificate 6 weeks in advance as had been told was sufficient. If zero or minus stars existed they would get that. I paid $1538.42 on 14/10/24 for return flights to Bengaluru from Brisbane for 2/4/25: 1. Would not provide tax invoice initially 2. Would only provide tax invoice for the cost of the flights, not for the booking fee, $1395.88. 3. I required hospitalisation and was significantly unwell and wrote to Student Universe via email on 4 occasions from 28/1/25 to 17/3/25, asking what to do about cancelling, then instructing them to cancel and then providing a medical certificate, and following up. The replies were boilerplate responses of no use or relevance. 4. For the same reason I called them 4 times on 13/3/25, 17/3/25, 21/3/25, 27/3/25 and was on the phone for a total for 1hr 25 mins. Each of the first 3 calls they said I could cancel and were aware I had provided a medical certificate. The final call they offered me a choice of a guaranteed reduced refund of about $500 (which sounded very off-the-cuff) or wait for a full refund less booking fee with a risk it may not be granted because it was too late, even though I had been trying to cancel since January for an April flight. 5. They said that any refund could take 10-15 business days, which by the time of the final phone call would have meant at least a week after the flight departure 6. The airline clearly knew I had cancelled because I never got the email for the online check-in 24hrs beforehand 7. To this day, 31 May 2025, I still have not received any refund, and no further responses.