Cyber Monday of 2016 (November 28) was record-setting for StudentUniverse. We sold the most airline tickets in a single day in the company’s 16 year history. For context, this is 13.38% higher than the next date in order of ticket volume.

We thought it would be fun to spotlight what students were booking, for when and where they were going.

Booking volume peaked from 8pm – midnight. The regions that students were booking to most frequently were domestic flights, Europe, Canada and the South Pacific. The top routes booked for the day were New York to London, New York to Barcelona and Boston to London.

Students were booking:

• Short-lead domestic travel for the week of December 20 to go home from school (the #1 flight route being Raleigh to New York). This type of travel accounted for 61% of our bookings.
• Departures to Asia and Latin America from the US for the week of December 20, 2017. The most popular routes were New York to Shanghai for students going to Asia and New York to Lima for students going to Latin America.
• Study abroad flights for January with the highest volume of departures the week of January 10, 2017.
• Flights from Asia to the US to go back to the States after Winter break. The most popular route was Hong Kong to New York.
• Flights from students in Europe coming home from study abroad, with peak departures the week of January 2, 2017.
• Spring Break travel to Europe with the highest volume of departures the week of March 10, 2017.

In addition to Cyber Monday, Black Friday (November 25) was the fifth all-time best sales day in StudentUniverse’s company history. New York to Chicago was our most popular route booked that day and the week of December 20 (similar to Cyber Monday) was the most popular week that students were booking travel for.

Other popular travel booked on Cyber Monday included:

• Travel to Europe – the most popular routes were New York to London, LA to London, Washington to London and Boston to London.
• Travel from the US to Asia (peak bookings for the week of 12/19/2016) with the majority of travelers going from New York to Shanghai.
• Holiday travel from the US to Latin America (with LA to Buenos Aires the most popular route) as well as Cancun and San Juan as the most popular destinations.

Thank you to everyone who helped make these exciting sales days record-breaking, setting new goals to chase in 2017 and beyond.