Amazon Relaunches Discount Flights for Younger Prime Members

Amazon is re-teaming with StudentUniverse to offer low-cost flights to younger Prime members.

The partnership, timed to coincide with the holiday travel season, offers a limited number of $25 flights to Prime members with a young adult plan.

“As a mom to a college student, I am excited to have my son home for the holidays,” Carmen Nestares, vice president of U.S. Prime and Marketing Tech at Amazon, said in a Wednesday (Dec. 4) news release.

“The holidays are a time to gather with loved ones, make memories, and create traditions, and we’re happy to help make flying more affordable for young adults who want to spend this important time with family and friends. Our Prime young adult membership not only delivers all the savings and value that Prime provides, it also offers exclusive benefits and surprise perks just for 18 to 24-year-olds.”

Prime members ages 18 to 24 can book tickets beginning at 10 a.m. PST on Dec. 9 for travel between that day and Jan. 14, 2025 for just $25, the release said. The promotion will make 5,000 tickets available, with 1,000 being offered per day between Dec. 9 and Dec. 13.

This is an expansion of last year’s program, which offered 3,000 tickets over a three-day period.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that younger consumers want to spend on travel, though they are particular in how they go about that spending.

For example, members of Generation Z are slower to adopt co-branded travel credit cards than their older counterparts.

In other travel news, PYMNTS spoke recently about simplifying payments in the sector with CellPoint Digital CEO Kristian Gjerding.

“Simplicity in travel, the more they can go hand-in-hand, the better that is for everyone,” he told PYMNTS during a discussion for the What’s Next in Payments series, “Business Simplicity: The New KPI.”

He added that one of the key pain points for travelers is a fractured, cumbersome user experience where consumers often face issues like lost seat reservations, checkout errors, fluctuating prices and limited payment options.

“It’s having a complex and broken user experience in trying to complete the purchase,” he said.

Against this backdrop, PYMNTS wrote, simplifying the travel experience is becoming synonymous with streamlined payment solutions as travelers seek out convenience and security from booking to checkout.

“For the modern traveler, every stage of a journey — from reserving flights to paying for a coffee on arrival — benefits from smooth, integrated payment experiences that eliminate friction,” that report said.