Privacy Policy

We have developed a privacy policy to keep you informed of what personally identifiable information ("PII") we may collect from you, what this information will be used for, with whom such information will be shared, and the security procedures we have implemented to protect your privacy. PII includes information that can be linked to a specific individual, such as name, address, phone number or email address.

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOW WE COLLECT IT

To make travel arrangements and provide other services to you, we will collect personal information from you, including but not limited to:

• your name, your mailing address, your phone number, email address, birthday and student status information (ISIC card number)
• travel preferences such as seat, special meals, and airline preferences;
• information necessary to facilitate travel or other services, including travel companion(s) names, emergency contacts, seating preferences and special dietary or medical needs;
• personal information provided to customer-service representatives to research and resolve issues or questions; and
• payment information, including but not limited to your credit card number, card type, cardholder name, expiration date, and billing address.

We may also collect personal information when you become a member, for sweepstakes entry, to  be able to provide you with a newsletter or other special information, or to be able to provide you with a brochure or other travel related materials.  We do not knowingly collect PII from children under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, please do not provide personally identifiable information of any kind whatsoever.

STA Travel also uses commonly employed Internet technologies to collect additional informationabout users. For example, STA Travel uses "cookies" to determine how users reach the Web site and to track general usage patterns once a user is on the Web site. This information is collected and analyzed in the aggregate in order to improve the function, content, overall appearance, and capability of the Website. "Cookies" are small pieces of information that are transferred by a website and stored by your web browser on your computer's hard drive. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies; however, you can always choose not to accept a cookie by changing your computer preferences to refuse cookies or to prompt you to accept each cookie, but doing so will limit the range of features available to on the Web site. Although STA Travel requires that your web browser accept cookies to access the Web site, STA Travel does not store any PII in them.

You may receive emails from us about special promotions, surveys, contests, sweepstakes, flight specials, trip information, or other travel opportunities with STA Travel. To assess the effectiveness of these emails, we may attach a web beacon that provides confirmation when you open an email from statravel.com. This only occurs if your computer supports such technology. 

STA Travel also collects certain technical information from your computer each time you request a page during a visit to statravel.com. This information is collected from your computer's web browser to enhance your experience on our Web site and may include your IP address, operating system, web browser software (e.g., Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer), screen resolution, and referrer website. In addition, authorized STA Travel personnel may update your profile to accurately reflect any new profile information included in communications received from you.

STA Travel does use third-party advertising across the Internet. This advertising uses cookie and Web Beacon technology to measure and improve the effectiveness of these efforts. To make this happen, the advertising may use anonymous information about your visits to statravel.com and other Web sites including: date and time of a banner shown, the cookie and the first three octets of the IP address. No PII is collected and any information that IS gathered is used for online marketing purposes.

The advertising companies may use information about your visits to statravel.com and other Web sites to provide ads about goods and services you might find interesting. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by a third party, simply to go: www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp

ACTION TAGS

STA Travel does use third-party advertising across the Internet. This advertising uses cookie and Web Beacon technology to measure and improve the effectiveness of these efforts. To make this happen, the advertising may use anonymous information about your visits to statravel.com and other Web sites including: date and time of a banner shown, the cookie and the first three octets of the IP address. No PII is collected and any information that IS gathered is used for online marketing purposes.

The advertising companies may use information about your visits to statravel.com and other Web sites to provide ads about goods and services you might find interesting. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by a third party, simply to go: www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp.

HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND WITH WHOM IT IS SHARED

When you make travel arrangements with STA Travel and you provide information about yourself, we use this information to complete your order (i.e., to complete air, hotel, car, and other reservations), fulfill any customer service requests, and provide promotional or trip related information via emailor direct mail. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to complete your order and fulfill your travel arrangements. Such other parties may include, but are not  limited to, appropriate airlinesand other travel suppliers, credit card merchant services, airline reservation systems, and other global distribution systems.

These service providers will disclose information about your traveler profile to hotel, airline, cruise, rental car, and other travel suppliers whose products you have purchased. Although STA Travel attempts to select travel suppliers that are reputable companies, we have not placed limitations on these suppliers from using or disclosing your information without your permission. Therefore, we encourage you to review the information privacy practices of any travel suppliers whose products you purchase on statravel.com. In addition, these travel suppliers may also contact you as necessary to obtain additional information about your confirmed reservation.

In addition to processing, confirming and fulfilling the travel or other services you request, STA Travel may use certain data for administrative and analytical purposes such as information systems management, accounting, billing and audits. We may also use PII to provide you other services, such as sending you an email notification regarding the status of your travel plans or informing you about special promotions, surveys, contests, sweepstakes, flight specials, trip information, or other travel opportunities from STA Travel or its marketing partners.

Although no PII is collected, we monitor users’ navigation of our Web site in order to better understand and serve our customers. We may provide anonymous statistical information based on this data to suppliers, advertisers, affiliates and other current and potential business partners. We may also use such aggregate data to inform these third parties as to the number ofpeople who have seen and clicked on links to their Web sites.

When you are on the Web site and are asked for PII, you are sharing that information with STA Travel only, except as set forth elsewhere in this privacy policy.

We may collaborate with other companies to offer you additional Products or Services, for example, through sweepstakes, raffles, and promotions. We will share Personal Information that is necessary for these other companies to provide the Products or Services that you have requested. This policy will not cover the use of your Personal Information by these other companies. We encourage you to read a company's privacy policy before requesting any of its products or services.

STA Travel may disclose the information that we collect about you when we have reason to believe that it is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against persons or entities who may be causing injury to you, to us, or to others. We may also disclose your information when we believe the law requires it.

Other Information You Should Know

This Privacy Policy was revised and posted on statravel.com on August 14, 2008. STA Travel may, in its sole discretion, revise this privacy policy at any time and all such revisions shall be effective when posted, so be sure to check back periodically. Privacy Policy changes will apply to the information collected from the date we post the revised Privacy Policy, as well as to existing information held by us.. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account and/or by placing a prominent notice on our site. Use of the Website after such changes are posted, or as otherwise set forth in our email to you on this subject, shall constitute acceptance of such changes.