I have recently graduated from the university of sheffield in history and politics. I am going trave...
I have recently graduated from the university of sheffield in history and politics. I am going travelling in australia in November for 4 months
Member since:29.07.2002
Reviews:7
Members who trust:2
I have just spent four years of my life at university trying to avoid getting a job, so when I finally graduated in June reality hit me that I would soon enter working life and fun and games would be over for me. Instead of accepting this inevitability I set about trying to delay it further. What better, I thought, then to book a trip to Australia and join the thousands of other British graduates out there having a good time. It also served the purpose of being able to attend a sporting event, the Ashes, which I had always dreamt of attending.
I started phoning up travel agents and searching the web but the prices quoted all seemed far too steep as I was hoping to travel near Christmas. My friend suggested STA and so I visited the office in Ealing Broadway where one of their advisors spent about two hours trying to fit in my entire itinerary and give me a good price. I wanted to travel in November, stop off in Thailand for a week and a half, then fly to Perth, then to Melbourne, then to Sydney. On my return flight I wanted to fly out of Sydney onto Singapore then back to London Heathrow. To my surprise the agent found a ticket which allowed me to do all of this. £730 (+tax) would allow me to do all of this, the ticket is valid for a year and the only additional cost was the Melbourne to Sydney flight that cost £55.
We had another problem, I am hoping to travel with five other people who were spread between Manchester, Sunderland and Wolverhampton… no problem my agent told me, I could book it for all five others and he would ring them individually to get their switch card details. Once he solved this problem I thought of another, I’ve only been out of university for one month, I have no means of paying this ticket now and by the time I will have money the flights will be sure to be full, once again my hero in STA came to the rescue and told me about the deposit scheme which means you only need put a £75 deposit and that guarantees you seats on all the flights. Of course prices can fluctuate but as we were travelling with Quantas he assured me that this is unlikely. They have also been very helpful in helping us get cheap yet pleasant accommodation wherever we are stopping AND if I do decide to change any dates once I am in Australia it will only cost me £15 to do so. So with STA I can go to two Far East Asia destinations and fly to three cities in Australia from London Heathrow for under a grand.
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Well firstly i am very very jealous of your travel plans, and only wish i wasnt tied down at university, so then i could be off travelling like you. Really liked your review, ive used STA a few times now, and everything you said i have experineced, i am def. impressed with them and if i dont book direct withe the airline, i always go with STA
elkiedee 15.12.2003 22:48
As others said, I'd like to know if it all worked out and if you'd book future travels with them, as it sounded like your plans were quite complicated.
sdwill 06.08.2002 10:07
Sounds like a bargain at this point but I'd be interested to know how it all turns out, particularly with the possible price rises!
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Advantages: All the benefits of STA (good prices, well-travelled and helpful staff etc) combined with no queues, you can take your time Disadvantages: You might not get an expert in the region you're travelling to; some innacuracies in their information system?
nikeair 24.01.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of STA Travel
Aug 5th, 2002
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